The federal government has commissioned a 1.8 million cubic metres storage capacity Okuta Dam in Baruten local government area of Kwara state to feed at least 100 hectares of irrigation farm lands.
The Minister of Agriculture, Engr. Suleiman Adamu, disclosed this at the commissioning of the dam, a project office and some other completed projects in Ilorin, which ran from Thursday to Friday morning.
The minister, represented by the director, River Basins Operations and Inspectorate of the ministry, Mr. John Ochigbo, described the dam as “a critical national asset.”
He urged the people of Okuta to take advantage of the potential of the dam to boost an all-year farming production.
Adamu expressed regrets that despite the federal government’s efforts to improve potable water supply to Nigerians, national access to water supply is only about 70% which is below the Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs) target of 100 % by year 2030.”
This, he attributed to a “variety of factors, among which are under-utiilisation of impounded water in the dams, reservoirs, inadequate funding, low private sector participation and low level of investment in the sector.”
He said President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the partial commercilisation of the 12 basins across the country in a bid to make them realise their core mandates.
In his remarks, the managing director, Lower Niger River Basin Development Authority, Dr. Adeniyi Saheed Aremu, said the dam project, which was initiated by the agency in 2018 and awarded to Michael Jacobs Consulting, was completed in 2020 within a period of 24 months.
“The dam is basically an earth dam with crest of 325m, reservoir with width of 343 and intake height of 8.5m .It was designed to draw its water from River Woobe and has a total storage capacity of 1.8 million cubic metres,” he said.n
