Kiri Dam To Convert To Hydro- Power Facility – Official

The Kiri Agriculture Dam Project, is to be converted to a hydro-power project, according to Mr Anthony Reuben, an Assistant General Manager at the Adamawa State Water Board.

Reuben told newsmen in Abuja that the project was originally created for agricultural purpose.

According to him, the Adamawa Government, in collaboration with the Federal Government and an American company, are working on the project.

The Tide reports that Kiri Dam, built on River Gongola, is located in Kiri Village about 20 kms from Numan town in Shelleng Local Government Area of the state.

“The Kiri dam project was originally created mainly to give water to the Savanna Sugar Company, but it will be converted to a hydro-power facility that will supply about 70 per cent of its water to the state.

“This is in a bid to tackle the challenge of power supply. We are supposed to operate between 12 hours and 15 hours a day “Now, averagely, we are operating at eight hours a day and you know using diesel is so costly.

“Because it costs so much, the problem of power is what is making us not to supply water as we like to consumers; but when this facility is put in place, we will operate maximally.’’

The assistant director identified other constraints of the board besides power supply as the human capital development and the lack of spare parts.

“These problems as evident in all the state water agencies; but as I said, it’s not a private company but a government institution; so we are bound to suffer one time or the other.

“At times, the release of funds will not be forthcoming, and when it comes, might not be enough to tackle the issue it was meant for.’’

On revenue collection, the assistant manager praised the people for paying water bills promptly, stressing that ” What we should do is to reform and modernize our data collection mechanism because collection of data is the bane of all water agencies.

According to him, “We have to modernize and create even sub-units and encourage workers to imbibe the spirit of data collection.

“We also need to hasten the construction of the hydro-power station so that through it, the board can also fund itself and not depend on government.’’

It would be recalled that Adamawa State was among the 12 states which the World Bank commended for doing well during a performance assessment workshop organised by the Federal Ministry of Water Resources.