Water Resources gets N38 billion for 2014

The 2014 budget proposal submitted to the National Assembly by the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has allocated the sum of N38.4 billion to the Ministry of Water Resources for the 2014 fiscal year.The allocation has provision for the construction of new 42 dams in various parts […]

The 2014 budget proposal submitted to the National Assembly by the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has allocated the sum of N38.4 billion to the Ministry of Water Resources for the 2014 fiscal year.
The allocation has provision for the construction of new 42 dams in various parts of the country with the Kashimbilla Dam getting the highest allocation of over N1.6 billion.
The other 41 dams and 22 irrigation projects listed in the budget have a total of N9.7 billion allocated to them in 2014.
Daily Trust check revealed that the Kashimbilla Dam project contract, though listed as new in the 2014 budget, was awarded in May 2007 at an initial sum of N42.93bn but was revised to N60.63bn due to the upgrading of the hydro power component from 6MW to 40MW by the Federal Executive Council.
The multi-purpose dam when completed will provide electricity, pipe-borne water for domestic and economic purposes, tourism, fishery, irrigation to the people of Takum, Kashimbila and Gamovo on River Kastina-Ala areas of Taraba State.
The dams spread across the country according to experts would assist the country in tackling the menace of flood which ravaged the country in 2012.
The Sabke Irrigation Project in Katsina, started in the 1990s by the Petroleum Trust Fund was also allocated N600 million in the 2014 budget but on paper it should have been completed long ago. Daily Trust check shows that Mr Labaran Maku, Minister of Information, said during a visit to the project site under the good governance tour in May 2013 that the project had been completed and would soon be put to use.
The project was abandoned by successive governments until it was revived by the Yar’adua administration.
The Kano River Irrigation Project (KRIP) which had lingered for over three decades also got an allocation of N314 million in the budget. The KRIP was designed by the Kano State Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources under the consultancy service of the Netherlands Engineering consultants (NEDECO) in 1969.
The KRIP is the oldest large and functioning irrigation scheme in Nigeria, with a capacity of 22 hectares and capable of producing 82,000 tonnes of associated farm produce, it was shifted from the Kano State Government to the Federal Government of Nigeria as a project under Hadejia – Jama’are River Basin Development Authority (HJRBDA).
The first phase commenced in 1971 and 1975. However, only 6,000 hectres were covered within this period under the Audu Bako Administration (who initiated and started the project in 1969). But in 1975, the Murtala/Obsanjo regime established the Hadiajia – Jama’are River Basin Development Authority (HJRBDA) to superintendent irrigation activities in the area and boost food production in its areas of coverage. But unfortunately, only 4,000 hectares were covered under their Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) programme up to 1979.
The period between 1979 and 1983 witnessed the Shehu Shagari Adminstration and its Green Revolution Programme that sought to reinvigorate agricultural production in the country. Despite all the pomp and pageantry that went with the noble programme, not much was achieved in increasing the coverage of the KRIP. In fact, only 4,000 additional hectares was actually covered. The project was surprisingly terminated in 1984 and went into limbo for nearly 20 years until the return of President Olusegun Obasanjo as a civilian president in 1999. During the eight years of Obasanjo administration and partly due to the lobbying of Governor Rabi’u Musa Kwakwaso and the Intervention of Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, the project was resuscitated and contract was awarded for the 7,000 hectares to complete first phase. Unfortunately, for over 32 years, only 17,000 out of 22,000 hectares were able to be covered for phase, 1 of the project.