Water access: More dams needed

Speaking to Daily Trust, Dr. Emmanuel Adanu, Director of Dams and Reservoir Operations, at the Federal Ministry of Water Resources said: “We need to complete the 30 dams currently under construction and build new ones all over the country because every individual needs water every day. You cannot say you want to concentrate on one […]

Speaking to Daily Trust, Dr. Emmanuel Adanu, Director of Dams and Reservoir Operations, at the Federal Ministry of Water Resources said: “We need to complete the 30 dams currently under construction and build new ones all over the country because every individual needs water every day. You cannot say you want to concentrate on one part of the country while the others wait, because every human being needs water. If it is possible for government to embark on the construction of more dams, it will be better.”
Daily Trust recalls that in the  2013 and 2014 budget, the Federal Government allocated over N22 billion for the construction and completion of about 30 small scale dams across the federation.
The allocation as contained in the 2013 budget showed that construction of a dam in Otukpo, Benue State got N5.5 billion, Ivo-River in Enugu State, got N2.5 billion while Kashimbilla Dam in Taraba State got N2.4 billion.
In 2014, Kashimbilla Dam got the highest allocation of N1.6 billion, the Otukpo Dam also got N550 million, Barkin Ladi Dam in Plateau State, got N500 million, Galma Dam got N500 million while N700 million was allocated for 27 small earth dams across the federation.   
Adanu noted: “We construct dams to make sure we tap fresh water in the country within our geographical reach for future use in areas like power generation, irrigation, and for drinking which is the most important. The issue is this federal government is only entitled to provide fresh water. It now becomes the responsibilities of states to take this raw water and distribute. It is not the mandate of the federal government to send water into tap, we provide the raw water, any state that has a dam in its territory can apply for them, we give them. In fact, they don’t need to ask, we tell them take the water and distribute.”
He said that the 30 dams started since 2013 are in various stages of completion, adding that if funds were made available, some of them would be completed this year.
Continuing, he said: “If government thinks that water is a necessity and ahead of other needs then, it should make more money available. We are very concerned because we know the history of water and the amount of water available to us. It keeps depleting every year so we are very careful and we are planning so much that we trap as much fresh water as should have gone into the ocean so we can have enough water for future use.”
He said that the existing dams in the country were holding about 33 to 34 billion cubic metres of water which the states could distribute to their people. “But the issue is that federal government is looked upon as responsible for not providing water to the tap, it is not the mandate of the federal government to do that but that of the state. if you have a dam in your vicinity, go and use it and I think it is unfair when they keep blaming the federal government for not providing water in the tap, we don’t have that mandate,” he added.