• Over 4,000 irrigation farmers, families in agony after losing only means of livelihood
By Sola Ojo
For over 100 years, the Tudun Saibu Dam in Soba Local Government area of Kaduna State, has been a lifeline for local communities in the area, providing a source of water for fishing, irrigation farming animal rearing and domestic purposes.
However, the collapse of the dam five years ago has left the benefitting communities and neighbouring countries in a state of confusion and despair, with over 4,000 farmers whose families depend on the dam for their education and health needs crying for help.
As a result of the collapse of the dam, several adjoining communities like Awai, Kinkiba and Mangara, among others, have deserted the area, Saturday Sun investigations revealed.
The investigation further revealed that animal growers, the herders who used to throng the dam during the dry season to eat farm wastes and, in return, leave cow dung, which serves as organic fertilizer to crop growers, have also deserted the area.
The development has also paved the way for climate change devastation. This further compounded the situation as the water levels in the bottom of the dam were now exposed to extreme climatic conditions.
Giving the historical background on the dam, a resident and traditional leader, Mai Anguwa and Galadiman Tudun Saibu, Muhammadu Aminu Chaure, recounted how the dam has been in existence since pre-independence days, managed by white people and provided livelihoods for several farmers.
“We used to farm all year round, but now we depend only on the rainy season,” he lamented.
“The dam has been here for about 100 years. I’m over 60 years and I grew up to meet the dam and the agricultural value chain activities in and around it. It has been there since pre-independence as a massive commercial fishing dam, being managed by white people then.
“So because of the fish feed in the water and cow dung on the farmland, it made it automatic fertilizer for irrigation agriculture in addition to the natural fertility of the land.
“When it was functioning, it provided a livelihood for several farmers in northern Nigeria. At that time, at least a peasant farmer could boast of a minimum of 50 bags of maize, sorghum, guinea corn, rice and beans at the end of every harvest.
“Then, we have people coming to buy grains from neighbouring countries, especially from the Republic of Niger.
“Five years ago, 80 per cent of the dam succumbed to the pressure of climate change. Today, the situation is worse, leaving us in a confused state”, he lamented.
The collapse of the dam has also affected the local economy, with many farmers struggling to make ends meet.
For example, Abubakar Suleiman, a resident of the area said, “abinitio, about 30 vehicles used to load fish from the dam weekly.
“We depend only on the rainy season. So since the dam collapsed five years ago, we have lost our livelihood”, he lamented.
Abdullahi Bako, a 43-year-old farmer, echoed similar sentiments, stating that the dam’s collapse has led to a loss of livelihood for over 4,000 people who relied on irrigation farming.
“When it was working, it was providing daily income for about 4,000 generic people in about three million transactions because most of the residents in the area are into irrigation farming, producing all year round.
“The problem now is water. There is not enough water for domestic use, let alone for irrigation. As you can see, I’m on my farm with other farmers. I grow onions, okra, tomatoes, and sugarcane, among others.
“The land is tender, and that allows us to grow all manners of crops as market demands. We are suffering. People are crying here,” he lamented.
Forty-one-year-old Sefianu Umar appealed to the government and other organisation to help repair the dam so that the affected communities could bounce back and farm to improve the country’s human capital development and food security.
“We need the dam to be functional again so that we can continue to farm and provide for our families and other people who depend on local staples.
“As farming communities, we have made efforts to sustain it, but our efforts are not yielding much results. We need government or any other organizations or individuals that can help us as soon as possible.
“This is the dam many of us are using to send our children to school, take care of our health needs and do other things as the economy may demand,” he said.
He specifically called on the Minister of Environment, Abass Balarabe, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Tajudeen Abass, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Abdullahi Dattijo whose ancestral homes in Zaria are just six kilometres away from Tudun Saibu to come to the aid of the farmers and their families.
“Most of their parents have worked and earned income to train them in Tudun Saibu before because Kaduna State used to have agricultural department farm here,” he said.
On the way forward for now, the Deputy Director, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, Kaduna State, Nyam Maikano, said the state government was doing a lot presently to help the people in the state mitigate the effect of climate change.
According to him, the Ministries, Department and Agencies in the state are working collaboratively to address some of the environmental challenges.
He, however, suggested that the dam be desilted and encampment and vegetation be planted to shield and reduce evaporation pending the time the concerned authority will fix it because it is capital intensive.
“The dam can be desilted. The people should formally notify the Kaduna State Water Corporation (KADSWAC), which has the mandate to build and maintain dams if they have not done so.
“KADSWAC can also write to us in the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources to come and help desilt the dam in question because Governor Uba Sani procured equipment to that effect just November last year, making Kaduna the only state to have such in northern Nigeria.
“Practically, they can create encampment and plant vegetation around the dam to shield and reduce the evaporation,” he suggested.
As the communities continue to experience the agony wreaked by the collapse of the dam, they hope that the government and individuals’ efforts will yield positive results and restore the dam to its former glory.