The Benin-Owena River Basin Authority (BORBA) has said that its plans to construct a dam in Auchi to boost irrigation.
This was made known on Thursday by the Managing Director of the authority, Saliu Ahmed, during a courtesy visit to the Otaru of Auchi.
He also pledged to address the problem of potable water supply in the town, adding that the construction of the dam would ensure food security in the country.
According to him, the dam construction was to encourage all year round farming in the area in line with Federal Government’s efforts of diversifying the economy through agriculture.
He said that the authority was targeting 10,000 hectares of land for irrigation in the area, adding that the farm mode would involve cropping, aquaculture, animal husbandry, agricultural processing and marketing.
Ahmed pledged that the authority would intervene in the water problem in Auchi by rehabilitating some facilities within the municipal water infrastructure.
“God willing, beginning from this year 2018 Benin-Owena River Basin is going to intervene in the water problem in Auchi.
“The problems of potable water supply to homes in this kingdom shall be relieved through the expansion of the head works and extension of the reticulation lines,” Ahmed said.
The managing director explained that the authority’s mandate was to construct dams and irrigation systems, provide potable water, manage surface and underground water and provide rural infrastructure.
He said: “The medium term strategy of Benin-Owena River Basin Development Authority is to continually increase the arable land with irrigation facilities for an all-year cropping, thus creating jobs for more people, who will directly and indirectly be involved in farming.”
He stressed that river basins in the country had the task of translating government economic diversification option by providing the needed facilities to encourage more people to embrace agriculture.
The Otaru of Auchi, Aliru Momoh, thanked the managing director and his management team for the visit and pledged the support of the people of the community on all projects to be undertaken by the authority.
