Walking along Usuma Dam’s filthy banks

Except for the occasional sound of the axe of loggers felling trees up the adjacent hill, the dam site was generally immersed in graveyard quietude, in sharp contrast to the hustles and bustles of the Federal Capital City lying vastly beyond the surrounding hills. Shuaibu Haladu and Muhammadu Tasiu sat right at the shore of […]

Except for the occasional sound of the axe of loggers felling trees up the adjacent hill, the dam site was generally immersed in graveyard quietude, in sharp contrast to the hustles and bustles of the Federal Capital City lying vastly beyond the surrounding hills.
Shuaibu Haladu and Muhammadu Tasiu sat right at the shore of the dam, sorting out the barely filled bowls of fish fingerlings they had just bought from the fisherman who had already paddled to a considerable distance back into the dam, perhaps to cast his dragnet for more fishes.
A little bit up shore lay the virtually desolate Julius Berger recreation yard. A considerable distance to the embankment of the reservoir, a herd of cattle grazed freely up the lower adjoining hills.
Even with the presence of a vast pipeline factory just adjacent the vicinity of the dam towards Ushafa, there was virtually no sign of life, let alone any economic activity, there.
This reporter’s guides, Engr. Femi and Bawa Umar, top management staff of the FCT Water Board, kept mum throughout the dam site tour ‘for lack of authority to speak,’ except, occasionally, showing what they felt might interest the public to know about this most essential facility to the survival of the highly populous capital of Nigeria and its satellite towns.
Generally, the 100 million-cubic-liter capacity reservoir and the larger section of the 30-year-old dam site were not a pleasant sight to behold on the scale of the cardinal purpose the dam was constructed to serve for the growth of a planned world-standard capital of a country.
Filth and Pollution
The dam has three sources of water: The Usuma River, the main source, which flows down from the direction of Mpape; other smaller tributaries flowing down the surrounding hills; and the Gurara Dam in Kaduna State. About 50 percent of water is usually sourced from Gurara Dam between January and February, especially up to March and April, when the water level at Usuma usually goes down.
From the rocky embankment down to most of its sections, the reservoir is sordidly littered with plastic bottles of bottled water, beer and soft-drink cans, polythene sachets of sachet water and several other nauseating bits and pieces.
Between the main gate of the dam and the reservoir, as well as at several places on the shore were several heaps of filth dotting the vicinity, most distasteful of them along the Usuma River at the Shishipe/Mpape axis, which massively flows to sink or float, polluting the water, revealed the Water Board management.
“Another source of the pollution comes from the activities of mechanics who repair, for example, batteries, and dump the irreparable ones,” a management staff, who preferred anonymity said, explaining that, “these discarded parts contain lead and electrolyte which are poisonous to humans, but they flow into the water, and you can imagine what that means in terms of human health.”   
Erosion
One of the most essential features for the sustenance and survival of the dam is the regular grassing of the outer side of the reservoir embankment; the absolute maintenance of the surrounding ecosystem, especially ensuring that the surrounding vegetation is not tampered with by the activities of humans and other animals, like farming and grazing; as well as the regular general maintenance of the inner side of the embankment.
“All these are not only to securely hide the reservoir in a pristine natural environment from destructive human and animal activities, but also to secure its essential structures from erosion,” the management staff said, continuing, “this is why we frown at even logging around the dam site because such activities would grade the surface soil, weakening it for easy erosion, causing eroding soil and mud that consequently flows into the reservoir to pollute the water.”
Investigations revealed several developing threats of erosion along the reservoir embankment; sporadic logging and cattle grazing in the surrounding hilly forest. Along the Usuma River at the Shishipe/Mpape axis, which is the main tributary of the dam, farming activities take place.
“We are hamstrung by the lack of any law to check such destructive activities, let alone prosecute offenders,” he lamented.
Economic Activities
The uphill earth dam is a single-purpose facility meant to provide clean water to the FCT. Apart from ensuring that pollutants from other vicinities do not flow in, there should, therefore, be no economic activity of whatever sort capable of polluting the water around the dam, intimated the Water Board authorities.
“That is why we detest farming, cattle grazing, logging, any form of trading and other businesses capable of developing wastes that can pollute the water, and even fishing with motorized canoes because the fuel used can pollute the water,” the Water Board staff said.
He informed: “We attempt controlling the activities of picnickers and partying people during festivities, such as Christmas. For example, we don’t allow them to picnic or party beyond 6:00 pm. Here, also, we are hamstrung to enforce this control,” recalling, “about four years ago, I was hastily summoned to this shore of the dam deep at night where a huge crowd was partying, I called the Police to disperse it, but they wouldn’t because we exhausted all avenues to do so and failed. The Police were left with only the option of using their weapons, but it was not proper to do so. We were helpless.”
Fishing with paddled canoes is the only economic activity allowed by the Water Board at the dam.
Cattle grazing, logging, farming activities at the Shishipe/Mpape axis, as well as the assorted filth lining the inner embankment and the heaps of trash dotting several sections of the site, observed by this reporter, are clear evidences of such activities uncontrollably taking place in the vicinity of the dam.
Lack of law to enforce dam safety
“We lack the desired legislation to enforce the safety of the dam in terms of the cleanliness and healthiness of the water and the entire structures of the dam,” the management staff alleged, explaining, “this is why we cannot check the littering growth of huge rubbish heaps at the Mpape side of the dam from where the largest percentage of the pollutants flow into the reservoir. No law to give us power of any effective enforcement of safety control and prosecution in the event of offense. Even the different sizes of rubbish heaps you see around are the products of our little efforts to rake out the floating pollutants.”
According to him, “the Water Board Autonomy Bill that is to give us all these powers, which has been in existence since the Obasanjo administration has not been signed into law. Goodluck Jonathan was to sign it, but he left it for Buhari to sign it. We now hear that it has to go through the process of reading again at the National Assembly.”
He alleged that the procrastination on the bill “is because certain quarters do not want the Board to be autonomous because it would completely deprive them of the access to the revenue we are collecting. We used to collect over N200 million revenue monthly, although it has now dwindled to between N100 million and N150 million. Even with this amount of revenue we are collecting, sometimes we operate for two to three months before we are given our monthly subvention of N22.5 million to operate and ensure the provision of clean and safe water. For many months now, we have applied for just N150, 000.00 to re-grass a section of the dam around Ushafa. We have not been given.”
He warned that without the Bill, Usuma Dam might have to remain in its current state until God knows when.
Engr. Usman A. Aliyu, the Head of the Department of Water Production of the FCT Water Board, is the chief administrative officer of the Usuma Dam site.
“We don’t allow any economic activity in the surroundings of the dam, and we have tried to ensure that the surrounding settlements comply, so that fertilizer or any other chemicals do not pollute the water, and farming activities do not erode the structures of the dam,” he said.
Engr. Aliyu lamented: “We have not been able to completely stop the inflow of pollutants into the dam, especially from the Mpape side. Also, we are a revenue generating agency, but we have no access to the revenue we collect. We go begging most times for the money to operate.”
However, according to him, the department was doing its best to produce clean and safe water for the consumption of the FCT residents.
“Where is that dam, is it the one in Kaduna State?” a resident of Mpape, who introduced himself as Michael, queried with deep implication of ignorance about Usuma Dam, saying, “we at Mpape don’t know that we are polluting any dam, after all, we only drink borehole water. Around the (Usuma) River at this side, people are farming. We are not aware that we shouldn’t farm here. I also have a farm.”
And so, Usuma Dam welcomes visitors to its site, with its filth.