The multi-billion naira Gurara Water Transfer Project, initiated by former president Olusegun Obasanjo 13 years ago, is yet to be completed by the federal government.
The contracts for the dams were awarded to two construction companies, Salini Nigeria Limited and SCC Nigeria, in 2001 to supply water to the Lower Usuma Dam in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to cover for the shortfall in the dam.
LEADERSHIP Weekend visited the project site located 75km away from Abuja — in Kagarko local government of Kaduna State — and discovered that work had been slowed down by the contractors.
The major contractor handling the Lot A Dam Project and Associated Works, Salini Nigeria Limited, had in the past demobilised from site three times due to lack of funds from the federal government. The project was planned to be handed over to the Federal Ministry of Water Resources after four years. But the government later discovered that dam storage capacity of 880MCM, 3.1km length and maximum height of 54 metres could supply more water and added associated works in 2007.
Gurara River has about 55m3 per second water, enough to meet the water needs of the entire FCT including power generation and irrigation.
This necessitated the remodelling of the project to add a hydropower generation plant of 30mw and an irrigation project of 6,000 hectares with emphasis on 2,000 hectares. But the continued lack of funds had delayed the project completion to date.
The major dam work has been completed and about 14m3 per second of raw water is being supplied to the FCT Water Board. The power generation plant is also completed but the 30mw is lying unutilised as the 140km transmission line to the main sub-station in Kudenda in Kaduna is still under construction by Salini.
Of the 2,000 hectares irrigable area the project is designed to cover, only 300 hectares have been covered by the company.
The Lot B 75 km conveyance pipeline to Usuma Dam handled by SCC Nigeria has been completed, but the adjoining road work is far from completion. The road is being handled by the Federal Capital Authority Administration (FCTA).
The other road components to the dam, which are the 39km Kateri to Gurara and 65km Kagarko to Gurara, handled by Salini is under construction.
Responding to questions from our correspondent, an engineer of the construction company who pleaded for anonymity said: “The project was supposed to end in 2008 but during the progress of the work they added power and irrigation work and it became a multipurpose work. The power project to Kaduna is quite a complicated work but due to lack of funds we stopped it, but in 2012 we started it again and we are hoping that, in two years’ time, we are supposed to complete it if the funds come.”
But the statements of the engineers were denied by officials of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and the Gurara Water Management Authority. In a joint response to LEADERSHIP Weekend’s enquiry, Emmanuel Adanu, director, Dams and Reservoir Operations, and Babbaji Ibrahim, coordinating director of Gurara Management Authority, said funds for the project were available. “The total project cost is N54.3 billion and not N69 billion,” they argued.