Senate advises FG over dams’ construction
Chris Emetoh, Abuja
The Federal Government has been urged to always conduct Impact Assessments on neighboring communities before the construction of any dam. This directive is contained in the resolutions of the Senate on Tuesday following a motion on the need for the construction of more captive dams across the country.
The Senate also charged the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing to work on all river crossing of the highways with capacity to capture some water without jeopardizing the road structure itself
since this will allow the money spent to serve dual purposes.
The motion, sponsored by Senators Barnabas Gemade and Stella Odua representing Benue North East and Anambra North respectively, while urging the Ministry of Water Resources to carry investigation of ground water situation in all River Basins and monitor its deployment, observed that the level of drilling boreholes for ground water has increased tremendously in the last 10 years especially since the introduction of constituency intervention projects and the advent of the UN programme of MDGs now SDGs.
The sponsors also decried the increased exploitation of aquifers which according to them has the effect of drastically raising the level of table water in many communities across the country, noting that “this has the effect of also contributing to the dryness of allevia layers of the land thereby affecting the survival of vegetation during dry seasons which is also contributing to desertification.'”
Also noting that the free running of streams tributaries and rivers is also causing top soil erosion and degradation of land, they stressed that the erection of streams tributaries and river banks is carrying with it large volumes of silt that is clogging the channels of these rivers causing excessive flooding of lands along the rivers.
According to them, “the phenomenon of building captive dams has been extensively used in other countries to recharge aquifers and to maintain good levels of ground water table even where extensive irrigation from boreholes is adapated. They therefore pray the senate to direct its committees on water resources, works and agriculture and environment to develop implementation guidelines for captive dam construction.
