Senate identifies over 400 abandoned water projects nationwide

The upper chamber of the National Assembly has identified over 400 abandoned water projects littered across the country.

The Senate Committee on Water Resources disclosed this while briefing newsmen after the budget defense by the Minister of Water Resources, Engr Suleiman Adamu.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Water Resources, Senator Bello Mandiya, disclosed that some of the dams were cited where they cannot even be constructed.

The Chairman explained that what the Ministry has done so far is to prioritize dams and so far, twenty dams have been identified which will be completed.

Mandiya said: “The Minister met about 400 water projects scattered all over the country. What he did was to prioritize because some dams were even cited where dams cannot be constructed. What he did was to prioritize and he has been able to complete some and decide to do others, about 20 of them from now till the end of his tenure. So, the Ministry is very clear about this.

“If we compare and contrast between what this government has done with previous governments in the water sector, you will realise that this government has done very well,” he explained.

The minister, while appearing before the committee, lamented spate of abandoned dams across the country. According to him, “we have over 400 dams but many of them have no utilization downstream. Anybody can come and invest in the dams.”

Speaking on the budget proposal for 2022, the minister presented budget proposal of N81 billion for the main Ministry, while he presented budget proposal of N70.4 billion for the agencies under the Ministry.

The capital proposal under the main Ministry is about N78 billion, while the Personnel cost is about N2 billion and Overheads, N278 million.

The agencies under the Ministry proposed capital budget of N62.1 billion while personnel is pegged at N7.2 billion and earmarked N1 billion for overhead.

The minister in his presentation, told the Committee of their decision to create line item for Public Private Partnership in line with extant circular.

(Daily Independent)