A commune is the third-level administrative unit in Mali . Mali is divided into eight regions and one capital district ( Bamako ). These subdivisions bear the name of their principal city. The regions are divided into 49 cercles . The cercles and the district are divided into 703 communes, with 36 urban communes and 667 rural communes, while some larger cercles still contain arrondissements above the commune level, these are organisational areas with no independent power or office. Rural communes are subdivided into villages, while urban communes are subdivided into quartier (wards or quarters). Communes usually bear the name of their principal town. The capital, Bamako , consists of six urban communes. There were initially 701 communes until Law No. 01-043 of 7 June 2001 created two new rural communes in the desert region in the north east of the country: Alata , Ménaka Cercle in the Gao Region and Intadjedite , Tin-Essako Cercle in the Kidal Region .
5-646: Markala is a commune in Mali 's Ségou Region on the Niger River 35 km down stream from the town of Ségou . The commune contains 30 villages in an area of 318 square kilometers and in 2009 had a population of 45,961. Mali's primary irrigation dam, the Markala dam, lies in the commune. The main village of the commune, Diamarabougou , is on the right bank adjacent to the dam which also serves as an important road bridge. The French colonial authorities constructed
10-412: The colonial period, an administrative structure. Unlike French communes, they are not the lowest level administrative structure of the nation. Legally, the commune structure was created by Law No. 96-059/AN-RM of 4 November 1996 . The communes generally retain the same boundaries as the former arrondissements . Commune affairs are directed by a commune council ( conseil communal ) of elected members and
15-430: The commune to the north. Until around 2008, the town was served by Markala Airport . Communes of Mali Not every built up area (which might be described as a town) is a commune, and not every commune (especially rural communes) contains a large town. In most cases where towns and communes coincide, commune borders extend beyond built up areas and are, like the communes of France on which they were based during
20-412: The dam between 1934 and 1945 to irrigate farmland with the intention of producing cotton for the textile industry. The dam is 2450 m in length and functions as a weir in that water can flow over the top. It diverts water into a canal system that extends 135 km to the north past the small towns of Niono and Sokolo in the 'Delta Mort' region. Each year around 2.7 km of water is diverted from
25-469: The river, which corresponds to 8.3 percent of the total flow. The water is used to irrigate about 750 square kilometers (75,000 ha) of farmland. The scheme is managed by the Office du Niger and in 1999/2000 produced 320,000 tons of rice, representing 40 percent of the total Malian production. Although the dam itself lies in the centre of the Markala commune, the farmland irrigated by the dam lies outside
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