Nigeria's dams contain enough water for 2014 dry season farming

AllAfrica.com via the Vanguard (Nigeria): An official of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Dr Emmanuel Adanu, said on Thursday that Nigeria's existing dams had stored enough sufficient water for 2014 dry season farming.

Adanu, the Director, Dams and Reservoir Operations said this in an interview on Thursday in Abuja. " We are working in close collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture now in their quest to provide food for the populace. We have enough water for everybody to use now for irrigation.  It is just that the dams have not been properly utilised.

"But we still have to contain most of our fresh water that is being discharged into the ocean every second, because in future it's going to be a problem of every nation in the world. The volume of water on earth is constant since its creation, but the population keeps growing. So the water available for each person keeps decreasing every second."

The director also said that attention was now being given to other parts of the country regarding the erection of dams. He noted that this was a new policy thrust of the government unlike the practice in the past when there was concentration of dams in the North. "Now the focus is to make water available for everybody. Basically, when we talk about water, drinking is the first thing. Water use by persons is the first thing you recognise before you go to other aspects such as irrigation, fishery and hydropower...."...

A 2012 NASA image of the lake formed by the Tiga dam in Nigeria