Commission To Provide Water For Communities Displaced By Dam Construction

The Hydroelectric Power Producing Areas Development Commission (HYPADEC) says it will begin provision of potable water to communities resettled under Kainji Dam Project.
Alhaji Abubakar Yelwa, Managing Director of HYPPADEC, announced this in an interview with newsmen during the Governing Council’s meeting of the commission in Minna yesterday.
He mentioned some of the communities to include Borgu and Yawuri in Niger which were displaced more than 50 years ago as a result of construction of Kainji Dam.
“Borgu and Yawuri are major towns displaced 50 years ago and resettled under the Kainji programme and up till now they do not have pipe-borne water.
“We will also provide water for all the local governments and all wards headquarters within commission in the six HYPPADEC members states,” he said.
Yelwa noted that the commission would also begin construction of resettlement sites for communities displaced by flood within the six HYPPADEC members states.
He identified inadequate funding as major constraint of the commission, saying that the major source of its funding is 40 per cent from the national budget.
He said the lifeline through which the commission operates is the 10 per cent generated from revenue and supposed to be paid to the commission by power generating companies.
He noted that the commission had provided boreholes and solar electricity to address insecurity as well as rehabilitation of existing primary schools and distribution of 2,500 motorcycles to communities within HYPADEC states.
Also, Mr Joseph Ityav, Chairman, Governing Council of HYPADEC, said that the meeting was to look at the activities of the commission executed in the last one year and plan for 2022.
He disclosed that part of the activities for 2022 was to engage 5,000 youths on skills acquisition for six months to enable them to acquire skills that would be beneficial to them.
Ityav, however, commended President Muhammadu Buhari for the confidence reposed on them to contribute their quota to the development of the nation.