Sabke dam, located in Maiadua local government of Katsina state, was constructed in 1995. Initiated by the defunct Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), the project was conceived with a view to supporting irrigation farming and providing water for domestic use. Nearly two decades after, the host communities have not benefited from the project. Muazu Elazelh reports
As one of the prospective beneficiaries of the well-intentioned but now abandoned Sabke Dam project, the words of MallamMannirUzairu, a farmer, summed up the prevailing feelings in Dogonhawa village, near the dam’s site in Katsina state.? “When government approached us to relinquish our lands for the construction of the irrigation site, we were perturbed.
But we did it because of the conviction that not only us but future generations will eventually benefit from it. But years after and seeing that the project has been abandoned, now I ask myself if we were actually in our right senses when we took that decision,” MallamUzairu lamented.
Consisting of three components, namely dam, pumping station and irrigation area, the multi-million naira project started off with the dam construction handled by SCC, which was completed in 1995. But almost two decades after this, the host communities have not benefited from the project by way of irrigation farming chiefly because work on the pumping station needed to supply water to the irrigation site has not been completed.
LEADERSHIPWEEKEND gathered that the dam could support irrigation farming spanning 1,500 hectares of land. It was observed that the secondary and tertiary canals have been put in place at the site while the main water reservoir located at Don-Hawa village has also been completed and ready for use.
However, due to the lenghtly neglect of the project and lack of water from the pumping station, the canals are filled with sand and overgrown vegetation. The tertiary canals have also started to crack.
The pumping station, a few metres away from the power house, is in shambles with most of the structures on site having neither doors nor windows.? They have also been vandalised by unknown persons.
It was learnt that the irrigation section of the project, which contract was awarded by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua, is currently useless to the communities owing to the failure to pump water to the site by the contracting firm, Chinese Geo Company (CGC).
But sources told Leadership WEEKENDthat CGC had refrained from pumping water to the site because the Federal Government had failed to settle the company’s outstanding payments for many years now.
Although efforts to speak with CGC officials proved abortive, a consultant on the project who simply gave his name as Engineer Yusuf, told LEADERSHIP WEEKEND that the project became stalled following government’s failure to settle a N400 million outstanding bill presented to it by CGC for work done so far on site.?
Lamenting that “people have waited long for this project to commence yet it has not,” Yusuf told LEADERSHIP WEEKEND that some of the installed equipment were being vandalised due to the project’s apparent neglect.
However, he expressed optimism that the project wouldboost the standard of living in the benefiting communities when completed and operational.
Attempts to speak with officials of the Sokoto River Basin Development Authority, an agency under the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, in charge of the Sabke and other federal dam projects in Katsina state failed as all of the officials declined to comment on the project’s fate.
But residents of the benefitting communities who spoke with LEADERSHIP WEEKEND appealed to the Federal Government to revisit the project with a view to completing it for the benefit of the communities, the state and the nation in general.
“When completed, the project will provide jobs to thousands of people not only from the surrounding communities but even beyond and in the process contribute to addressing the current challenges of insecurity, as many of the youths who now constitute threat to security because of unemployment would have been dutifully engaged,” a resident, Musa Badaru, 55, stated.
Maigari Shuaibu is the SarkinManoma or leader of the Sabke irrigation farmers. He told LEADERSHIP WEEKENDthat no fewer than 250 irrigation farmers currently shared the cramped irrigation site near the dam, stressing that “delays in completing the pumping station is adversely affecting irrigation farming.”
“The state government has indicated its commitment to supporting irrigation farming but the continued delay in completing work on the irrigation site and presence of insects which continually attack our crops are the major constraints we face at the moment,” Shuaibu added.
Also, Mallam Sunusi Yahaya, a farmer in DogonHawa Village, told our correspondent that residents of the area have waited for far too long expecting government to complete the project. He urged the authorities to complete the pumping station, insisting that “as things stand now, the project’s objects have not been achieved as the dam is grossly being under-utilised.”
A member of staff at the Agriculture Department of Maiadua local government, who craved anonymity, faulted the Federal Government “for unnecessarily delaying the completion of work on the dam, which will no doubt contribute immensely towards poverty alleviation and boost food production.” He also called on government to fix the pumping station.
Mallam Mustapha Salim, an investment analyst, alleged that the project’s neglect was a pointer to “government’s disregard for economic empowerment of the people,” stressing that“in this project lies an opportunity for not only the benefitting communities but the state and the nation at large to fight poverty, unemployment and revolutionise agriculture.”