Over 30 million Nigerians and thousands of livestock and hectares of land will be destroyed in Taraba, Benue, Cross River, Kogi, Anambra, Delta and Bayelsa states, if the Lake Nyos in Cameroon collapses. But, the antidote to this is the Kashimbila multipurpose dam in Taraba State, which aside preventing the disaster can also rival the Obudu Ranch Resort and generate electricity. December deadline has been set for the project, which was at some point abandoned and all eyes are on the Federal Government to see it through, reports Seun Akioye
On September 2, at about 9am, Minister for Water Resources Mrs. Sarah Ochekpe was addressing the African Ministers Conference on Water (AMCOW) at the World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden. Her presentation titled: “Creating efficient mix in water supply, irrigation and hydropower projects” was one eagerly awaited by the over 100 participants consisting of stakeholders in Africa’s water and energy industry.
Ochekpe spoke mainly about the Kashimbila dam, located in Taraba State. The dam, according to her, was built to serve as a buffer in the eventual collapse of Lake Nyos in Cameroon. It also occurred to the government to convert it to a multipurpose dam that will serve agriculture, water supply and energy.
“The Kashimbila dam project was conceived with the principles of integrated water resources management in mind, understanding that water drives the economic and social development of nations. In developing the dam, a holistic approach to water management in which many different aspects are closely connected and work successfully together was adopted,” she said.
The minister said the dam is a fully funded project of the Federal Government- something not common with big projects in Africa- and that it has cost the taxpayers about $1billion.
This revelation threw the group of ministers and participants into a frenzied mood. Many who spoke afterwards praised the initiative of the Nigerians but conceded their government will not be able to afford such a gigantic project, such as Kashimbila. Others asked for some experts’ help from the Federal Government. In that room in Stockholm, Kashimbila was a far flung place, about 20 kilometers to Cameroon on the Northern fringes of Nigeria. But, Kashimbila began to take a realistic shape as soon as one gets on the road for a visit.
The turbulent Lake Nyos
Almost every senior official at the Ministry of Water Resources agreed that Lake Nyos, located in Northwest region of Cameroon about 315km northwest of Yaounde will collapse. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) thought so too. For many years, volcanic activities have been active on the lake sending out carbon dioxide and killing scores of people and animals. On August 21, 1986, Lake Nyos suddenly emitted a large cloud of CO2 gas which caused intense suffocation killing 1,700 people and 3,500 livestock in nearby towns and villages.
To prevent a reccurrence, a degassing tube was installed in 2001, which leaked the carbon dioxide in safe quantities.
In September 2005, UNEP commissioned a study of the lake and submitted that due to structural deficit, the lake would collapse within 10 years. But, the lake poses a great threat to Nigeria, according to the report, the structural instability of the lake arising from the constant erosion-about 90 cm a year of the embankment and the constant build-up of carbon dioxide beneath the lake bed is still a threat to many Nigerian states.
Ochekpe did not mince words to the gathering of her fellow African water resources ministers when she said Nigeria was at great risk from the predicted collapse of the lake.
“The lake is seated on a pyroclastic rock which is weathering away at its base at the rate of 1m per annum. The imminent collapse of the lake will send over 30million cubic metre of water into Kastina-Ala River in Nigeria all the way to the Niger Delta, through the Benue and Niger river system,” she said.
There are more bad news: The wave from the lake will arrive in Nigeria within eight hours at the height of about 4meters. The impact will displace over 30 million Nigerians and thousands of livestock and hectares of land will be destroyed in Taraba, Benue, Cross River, Kogi, Anambra, Delta and Bayelsa states.
In January 2006, former President, Olusegun Obasanjo after consultations with various stakeholders approved that a buffer dam be constructed across Kastina-Ala River and by April 2007, the contract was awarded to Messrs SCC Nigeria Ltd.
Inside Kashimbila dam
Michael Rolbin has spent the last three years working on the Kashimbila dam almost twenty four hours every day. As the Project manager of the SCC managed multi-billion naira Kashimbila dam project, the successful completion of the project rests on his judgement.
“This is my home,” he said, waving his hand in a semi circle to indicate the construction site. He was standing on top of the dam with officials from the Ministry of Water Resources and Tourism. “We have been working here for 24 hours for two years. This is hard work.”
Rolbin did not exaggerate. When the project was first inaugurated in 2007, the construction company moved to site and began the foundation work. But, government was to abandon the project until 2010 when President Goodluck Jonathan resuscitated the project, a December 2014 deadline was set and since then, it has been a race against time.
The dam is situated on river Kastina-Ala, which is between the towns of Kashimbila and Gamovo in Taraba. Kashimbila is a product of nature’s wonder comparable only to the mountainous beauty of Obudu. The town is surrounded by hills and many rocks rest on the hills. The dam is located on a valley and the rocks divided it from Cameroon.
Dawn comes early to Kashimbila and the surrounding mountains and every morning the clouds rose from within the mountain bringing with it a cool, fresh wave of air often unavailable in the cities.
The dam is built about five kilometers from the village. Along the road is the guest quarters where visitors to the dam are lodged. Next to it is the labour camp where the workers also live. Everyone working on the dam lives close by and all the amenities are provided on the camp. Security is provided by a combined team of soldiers and private security companies.
Even though the dam was originally constructed to prevent a catastrophic consequence of the eventual collapse of Lake Nyos, it has since been converted into a multipurpose dam.
“Mr. President is very interested in this project. He insisted that every potential of the dam must be developed to the maximum,” Reginald Ikpeawujo, Director, Dams and Irrigation at the Ministry of Water Resources said.
The dam has three components: A 40 megawatt hydropower; water supply component, including a water treatment plant which will supply water to about 400,000 people and irrigation component, which will irrigate about 2000 hectares of farmland. On the fringe side is the provision for fisheries development, tourism and provision of water for sustenance of the environment and for downstream residents.
According to Rolbin, work on the dam is 95 per cent completed. One of the iconic sights is the massive turbines, which will generate 40 megawatts of electricity. There are four turbines each with installed capacity to generate 10megawatt electricity.
Rolbin and Ikpeawujo led the way through the water intake of one of the turbines. “This is one in a life time opportunity for you to see this turbine because once we finish nobody else can see it,” Rolbin said.
To access the base of the huge turbines, one would have to pass through the 3.5 diameter water intake outlet. This is where the water that will power the turbines to produce the electricity that Nigeria badly needs will flow. Ikpeawujo looked on with pride.
“There are four of these turbines, you can see from here how huge they. By the time we finished, we will generate 40 MW from this dam,” he said.
The hydropower component is almost completed with only the transmission/evacuation line work being done by the Ministry of Power still in progress.
The Kashimbila dam apart from being capital intensive is also a huge engineering challenge. The dam foundation was 30 meters deep; this is one of the “most challenging” aspects of the work due to what Ikpeawujo called the encounter with “strange rocks.”
The embankment is also one of the iconic structures; it is 35m high and 1.585 km long while the spillway is 85,000m3 of concrete mix. The power house is a massive construction along with the raw water intake structure.
The river diversion works began in April after which the dam works began across the riverbed. There is a connecting bridge across the river diversion channel which is 132 metres long.
About 1000 meters from the dam is the huge water treatment plant with installed capacity for 60,000m3. When completed, it will supply portable water to about 400,000 Nigerians.
The dam also has a centre pivot irrigation system component to about 2000 hectares of farmlands, which will benefit about 8,000 people. The survey work and demarcation of irrigable land have been completed. When in full motion, the irrigation project will also bring about micro-cottage industries and agro-allied development.
And there is the reservoir development of about 500MCM, which will support fish farming of about five tonnes a day. In all, the dam when completed is expected to generate 1500 employment in the various sectors.
Tourism potentials
Dorothy Duruaku, a Deputy Director at the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation was savouring her first visit to Kashimbila. Her brief has been to work out how to harness the tourism potentials of the dam, what facilities to put in place and what is needed to develop a world class tourism infrastructure.
Tourism has not always been a part of the plan at Kashimbila, but after his first visit, Jonathan fell in love with the environment and directed that its tourism potentials be developed.
“It is going to be huge. We are going to have a hotel here. We have decided to have eco lodge. We thought we will be able to use the existing infrastructure but coming here we will need to build hotels, but the focus is eco-tourism,” Duruaku said.
But, hotels are not the only facility the ministry is planning for, there will also be a museum, the wild park, a theme park and facilities for mountain hike.
“We are working on the accommodation, the visitor’s centre, conference hall, mini theatre and the excursion facilities,” said Rolbin.
The stakeholders at the Ministry of Tourism, Water Resources and SCC are already dreaming of world class facilities for tourism.
“We can create a safari park, bring in wild animals. We will provide a cable car from the reservoir to the wild park. If any tourist chooses, he may go by the river boats,” an official of the ministry said.
Duruaku said there would be mountain hiking, one that may one day rival the Obudu mountain relay. A picture of an early morning hiker came to mind, rising with the dawn and hiking directly into the clouds.
Ikpeawujo believes there is a lot of potentials in Kashimbila to attract international tourists. “Dam sites all over the world are known to attract tourists. Here we have the beautiful hills and the scenery is one of the most beautiful in Nigeria,” he said.
But, getting to Kashimbila is not an easy feat. From the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, it is a straight eight hours drive through Nasarawa, Benue and Taraba states. This may prove a burden for intending tourists. However, the team already has a solution. At the entrance of the dam is a 1.6 kilometer long airstrip and a tarmac which can accommodate two donnier aircrafts. When Jonathan visited the dam, he directed that two additional lanes must be added to the airstrip to accommodate bigger planes.
According to the plan, tourists who can afford it will have the option of flying directly into Kashimbila saving time and labour. Currently, there are no commercial operations into Kashimbila, though top officials and other important guests are already making use of the airstrip.
“We have reached 95 percent completion and I can assure you we will deliver by December this year,” Rolbin said.
When Ochekpe mentioned the cost of the dam during her presentation in Stockholm to be $1billion, it jolted not a few of the Africans. But, she defended the spending, saying every cost is justified. Ikpeawujo said when considered with the impending human catastrophe, if nothing is done, the cost is justified.
“The cost is justified. Imagine how much damage in human and material if the Lake Nyos should fail and we have flooding in Nigeria. That is what the government is trying to prevent and it is justified,” she said.
The government may have also been thinking about the revenue, which the lake will bring when fully utilised. This may have informed the decision to extend the focus of the lake into a multipurpose dam.
In the morning, the Kastina-Ala River basks in its glorious splendor flowing southwards into the Benue River. For many years, it has been a source of livelihood to the people of the surrounding communities. Soon, it will take a more dynamic role of saving lives and providing livelihood for more people from far and near. Two other rivers will join its southward journey along the way. All three rivers have their sources in Cameroon, which is about 20km from Kashimbila.
“This is much better than Obudu,” Rolbin said as he stood surveying the airstrip, “Everything in Obudu is here and we have the advantage of the dam.”
