Goronyo Dam (Sokoto State)
Goronyo dam impounds the Rima River in northern Nigeria’s Sokoto State. It opened in 1984. The 21-m-high, 12.5-km-long dam is sand-filled. It’s 976 million cubic metres. The dam will help regulate floods and release water for the Zauro polder project in Kebbi State. Governor Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko requested the Feds to finish the irrigation project in August 2009. Alhaji Bello Goronyo, the Sokoto State Assembly Minority Leader, stated N4 billion was needed to complete canalisation, but only N600 million was supplied in 2009. In late August 2010, rainstorms flooded the dam. To lessen failure risk, the gates were opened on September 1 2010, flooding Kagara. The dam’s spillway failed on September 8, triggering significant flooding. The flooding event may be part of a climate change pattern of higher temperatures and heavy rainfall.
Ikere Gorge Dam (Oyo State)
Ikere Gorge Dam is a significant earth-fill dam in Iseyin, Oyo State, on the Ogun River. The reservoir holds 690 million m3. General Olusegun Obasanjo’s military regime started the dam in 1983. The dam was supposed to generate 37.5 MW of energy, supply water to Lagos, and irrigate 12,000 hectares of land. The dam was built in 1982/1983, but military regimes abandoned it. In 2004, the UN reported that all five proposed irrigation projects still needed to be implemented. The project used a difficult-to-manage sprinkler system that required farmer training.
Jebba Dam (Niger State)
Nigeria’s Jebba Hydroelectric Power Station is located on the Niger River. Its 578.4 megawatts can power 364,000 households. The facility commenced commercial energy production in 1983 and was commissioned in 1985. The Jebba Power Station lies 62 miles downstream of the Kainji Dam and 25 miles southwest of Mokwa, the nearest city. This lies 256 km southwest of Minna, Niger State’s capital. The power station is on the Niger River at the boundary of Niger and Kwara states, 91.5 km (57 mi) northeast of Kwara’s capital, Ilorin. Jebba Dam is 72,917 feet above sea level. The Federal Government of Nigeria’s power station has six 96.4-megawatt turbines for 578.4 MW. Mainstream Energy Solutions Limited, an independent power firm, operates and maintains this power facility. Mainstream energy also owns the 760-megawatt Kainji Hydroelectric Power Station, 100 km upstream of Jebba. As of January 2021, five apartments are available. A fire in April 2009 rendered the sixth-generation unit useless.
Jibiya Dam (Katsina State)
Jibiya Dam is in northern Nigeria’s Katsina State. It’s a 23.5-m-tall, 3,660-m-long earth-fill structure with a geomembrane liner and a 142-million-m3 capacity. The 1987-built dam supports agriculture and water delivery. Except during the wet season, the dam site is sub-desert. The Gada river flows four months a year, with a 400 km2 catchment area near Jibiya. Due to the sandy surface soil, a flexible impermeable liner was employed to respond to settling or deformation. The dam’s condition was graded “excellent” in 2004; no instrument measurements had been taken since 1994 due to operator inexperience. In 2007, the dam wasn’t used for irrigation due to fuel scarcity. Gada River flows from Nigeria to Niger and back. Historically, eight months were dry. Regulated flow has improved Niger’s water supplies.
Kafin Zaki Dam (Bauchi State)
The Kafin Zaki Dam is a contentious project to build a reservoir on the Jama’are River in Bauchi State, Nigeria. The 11-kilometre-long dam would be zoned earth fill. It could have a 15 MW hydroelectric plant. The reservoir would be the second largest in Nigeria after Kainji Dam. It would irrigate 120,000 hectares of cropland. The project might support 1 million tonnes of sugarcane production and 1 million employment in agriculture-related companies. After the 1972-1974 Sahel drought, Julius Berger Nigeria was contracted to build the dam during the Shehu Shagari administration in 1979-1982. The contract ended in 1984, but Ibrahim Babangida renewed it in 1992. In 1994, the Sani Abacha regime terminated the contract and launched an investigation into the project. The project’s 2002 financing was abruptly revoked. In 2008, Bauchi State Governor Isa Yuguda handed the Dangote Group a contract to revive the abandoned dam project. Abdul Ahmed Ningi, a Bauchi state delegate who was House Leader in 2002, endorsed the initiative.
Kainji Dam (Niger State)
Kainji dam is in Niger State, central Nigeria. Impregilo (a partnership of Italian Civil Engineering Contractors) built the dam in 1964 following designs by Joint Consultants, Balfour Beatty and Nedeco. One-quarter of the expense was utilised to resettle villagers displaced by the dam and its reservoir, Kainji Lake. Kainji dam is 10 km long, including its saddle dam, which shuts a tributary valley. The outflow to the Niger is 550 metres wide (1,800 ft). The hydroelectric turbines are housed in the central concrete portion. This part is 65m high. Kanji Dam is the world’s longest. Only 8 of the dam’s 12 turbines have been constructed, decreasing its capacity to 760 megawatts (1,020,000 hp)—the dam powers Nigeria’s major cities. Niger, a neighbouring country, purchases some of this power. Droughts make Niger’s water flow unpredictable, reducing the dam’s capacity. The dam’s solitary lock lifts barges 49 metres (161 ft).
Kiri Dam (Adamawa State)
The Kiri Dam dams the Gongola River near Shelleng, Adamawa State, Nigeria. It’s a 1.2-km-long, 20-m-high zoned embankment of clay. The dam was finished in 1982. It holds 615 million m3. The dam was built to irrigate the Savannah Sugar Company (SSC), a joint venture between the Nigerian Federal Government and the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC), London. The CDC managed the project, and NECCO, a government-owned firm, built it. In 2002, Dangote Industries bought Savannah Sugar. The enterprise held 32,000 hectares around the dam in 2009, of which 6,330 were used and employed 5,000 people. The enterprise produced 50,000 tonnes of sugar annually for Nigeria’s 1.1 million-ton market. The company’s canals irrigated 1,000 hectares of rice and other crops. Twenty-nine thousand hectares were expropriated without compensation, displacing 20,000—inadequate resettlement aid. Dam impacts lower Gongola River. Flood peaks fell from 1,420 to 1,256 m3/second, whereas dry-season flows rose from 5.7 to 21 m3/second. Downstream from the dam, the river has narrowed and has fewer channels.
Oyan River Dam (Ogun State)
The Oyan River Dam is 20 km north of Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State, Nigeria. The dam crosses the tributary Oyan River. It supplies raw water to Lagos and Abeokuta but also has agricultural and power generation potential. President Shehu Shagari commissioned the dam on March 29, 1983. The Ogun-Osun River Basin Development Authority operates it. The lake sits in a sparsely forested, low-fertility savannah. Its catchment area is 9,000 km2. The dam has a 1044-meter crest, a 30.4-meter height, and a 270-million-m3 storage capacity. It supplies raw water to Lagos and Abeokuta and supports the 3,000-hectare Lower Ogun Irrigation Project. Until 1983, three 3-megawatt turbines were erected but unused in 2007. Twenty-two villages were lost to the water during construction, and their residents were dispersed among three camps as the lake dries up; some people fish and farm along the rich shoreline. A 2009 study reported significant levels of urinary schistosomiasis in the Ibaro-Oyan and Abule Titun populations, which rely on the Oyan Dam. A 1990–1993 study found that snail-borne disease risk might decrease by regularly draining the reservoir during the hot, dry season. In May 2009, severe rainfall caused dam operators to discharge extra water for safety, flooding 2,800 hectares. In February 2010, the dam wasn’t delivering enough raw water to Abeokuta. A power surge caused waterworks equipment failure. Abeokuta residents drank from rivers and streams. The Ogun State Water Corporation blamed PHCN’s unstable electrical supply.
Shiroro Dam (Niger State)
The Shiroro Power Station is a hydroelectric power plant located in Niger State, Nigeria. It gets its water from the Kaduna River. It can generate 600 megawatts of power, equivalent to 800,000 horsepower and sufficient to power over 404,000 houses. The Shiroro Power Station started generating electricity in the year 1990.
Tiga Dam (Kano State)
Tiga Dam was built in 1971–1974 in Kano State, Nigeria. It’s a significant reservoir on the Kano River, the Hadejia’s main tributary. Governor Audu Bako created the dam to promote food security through irrigation. The dam has a maximum capacity of 2,000,000 cubic metres and covers 178 km2 (69 mi2) (71,000,000 cu ft). Kano River Irrigation Project and Kano City get water from the dam. Several studies suggest that the dam’s effect on downstream towns reduces its economic value. On completion of the dam, river flow downstream at Gashua in Yobe State declined by 100,000,000 cubic metres per year due to upstream irrigation and by more than 50,000,000 cubic metres due to reservoir evaporation. A 1999 study found that farmers on the downstream floodplain had altered their agriculture, although the enhanced productivity may not be sustainable. The Hadejia-Nguru marshes are economically and ecologically important. Fulani people live off wet-season rice farming, other crops, fishing, and cow grazing. Dam degradation reduces fish catches and wetland harvests.
In August 2009, Yobe North Senator Ahmed Ibrahim Lawan, chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, said the Tiga Dam cut the Kano River water flow by 50%. The senator opposed the Kafin Zaki Dam on the Jama’are River, another Yobe River tributary. He argued the Tiga and Challawa Dams caused poverty, desert encroachment, migration, and farmer-herder clashes. Yobe River no longer flows into Lake Chad. Lake Chad could dry up in 40 years. More than 30 million people fish, cultivate and raise livestock in the Lake Chad Basin. In November 2008, a study group visited the Tiga dam and other sites.
Zauro Polder Project (Kebbi State)
The Zauro polder project in Kebbi State, Nigeria, is an irrigation facility. The contentious project requires careful management to deliver its benefits. Sudanese Savanna covers much of Kebbi State. Seasonally flooded Rima and Niger lowlands cross it. There’s a wet season from May to September and little else. Annual rainfall averages 800 mm (31 in). Between April and June, temperatures range from 21 to 40 °C (70 to 104 °F). Dams and irrigation schemes have been proposed to use rainy-season water for dry-season crops. The project began in 1969 as a state-federal partnership. The dam would irrigate 10,572 hectares (26,120 acres) of farmland in the Rima River floodplain between Argungu and Birnin Kebbi. Rice, maise, wheat, barley, cowpeas, onions, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and Irish potatoes are grown. The dam would help the state’s fishing economy. The project would include a reservoir, canals to irrigate and drain polders, and flood-protected farmland. After a study of the original design, the open channels were replaced with an aquifer recharge system, employing wells to collect water from the aquifer for agriculture. The Goronyo Dam in Sokoto State would prevent flood damage and provide water in the dry season. Multiple delays. In July 1995, the project was “stopped.” President Olusegun Obasanjo vowed to finish the project in Birnin Kebbi in March 2003. Federal and Kebbi state governments signed a memorandum of agreement for the project in October 2006. In May 2008, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua ordered the project’s first phase to begin immediately. Governor Sa’idu Dakingari of Kebbi State claimed work would shortly begin in January 2009.
Zobe Dam (Katsina State)
Zobe Dam is near Dutsin-Ma, Katsina State, Nigeria. It’s a 19-m-high, 2,750-m-long earth-fill construction. The dam can irrigate 8,000 hectares and holds 179 Mca. The dam was constructed in 1983 but wasn’t used for water delivery to Katsina city, local irrigation, or power generation in 2010. Zobe Dam was conceived in the late 1970s by General Olusegun Obasanjo to supply 50% of Katsina state’s drinking water and help irrigation farming in Dutsinma. Shehu Shagari’s administration developed and finished the dam in 1983. The $122,000,000 water supply project was supposed to be completed in 1995, but money ran out. A 2004 safety evaluation indicated that although the dam appeared stable, it had seepage concerns in the past and should be continuously monitored and updated to intercept foundation seepage. Heavy rains in September 1999 overflowed the Zobe Dam, causing crop losses. Millet, groundnuts, guinea corn, and beans were destroyed. Inadequately paid farmers were destitute after the rainy season ended, and their crops were ruined. The dam’s water was stagnant and filthy in 2003, and evaporation and leaks were emptying it. The dam’s operators dug relief wells to exhaust the reservoir. Sokoto-Rima River Basin Development Authority still needed to clear land or release water for crops. The people couldn’t water their crops, and the new lake was nearly fishless. In August 2003, a former Katsina State Water Board official alleged lack of concentration and direction hampered the completion of the Zobe Dam. Zobe, one of Nigeria’s most significant bodies of water with colossal irrigation potential, was unused, he added. Farmers demanded dam water in December 2005. Katsina State announced intentions to build a hydropower station at the underutilised dam in June 2009 to enhance electricity supplies and support mineral processing. Engineer Musa Nashuni said the first stage is to produce insulators for the electrification works. Then the government would look at establishing a power plant for irrigation, water generation, and local enterprises.