“Once, only two trees were visible when on a good day the dam fills with water.

of forms from the watery depth in which they had lain. Climate change is on the march, altering lives and environments across the world, raising temperatures, triggering floods and imposing arid conditions in places that were once green.

No water

An informed source in Sokoto who prefers anonymity, says “On a scientific basis, if there is no water in the dam,it affects many things, because the main essence of the reservoir is to supply water for domestic and agricultural needs. Now, for both domestic and agricultural needs, we don’t have water. To a certain extent most of the wells have dried up.” He continues “The source of the water is from three rivers. Rivers Gagare and Busuru which are in Nigeria, and river Maradi in Niger republic. These are the sources and they flow into the dam. Once there is no water upstream,the dam would have a low volume of water, and water has to be released for domestic use in Kebbi and Sokoto states. Most of the water requirement comes from that dam,and the two states also depend on it solely for dry season farming. If there’s no water to irrigate, then the situation becomes a threat to food security.”

Water transfer

Dr. Sani Usman (not real name) commenting on the way forward, admits “The water level in the dam can be restored to its original level if there is succession of average rainfall for a period of two to three years, depending on the design capacity of the reservoir. Some dams fill in one season while others take two to three years to fill. This is the natural inflow. If however, there is need for human intervention, water could be transferred from another catchment area to the dam or they may pump groundwater into the dam.” Dr. Babatunde Adeogun of the Faculty of Engineering, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria speaks in the same vein “We need to control the micro climate, to reduce the rate of evaporation. To do this we need to plant trees around that will reduce the rate at which the water will evaporate. There should be effective management of the watershed as a whole, so that people will not be carrying out farming activities indiscriminately, because it is the forming of ridges that releases sediments which go back to the river.”

Climate change

During a recent visit to the Goronyo dam, Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State revealed “Our farmers are also suffering because output from this year’s dry season farming will invariably be affected.” According to the Managing Director of the Sokoto Rima River Basin Development Authority, Engineer Buhari Bature, “depletion was the worst seen in the dam in over 25 years. He also attributed the problem to shortage of rainfall in 2017, climate change and lack of desilting of the dam.” Suleiman Adamu, Minister of Water Resources, in an interview with a news medium, laments “To come and see this desolate place in less than two years, I think it is mind boggling.Obviously, we can see the effect of climate change right at our doorsteps, for those that were sceptical about it, this is real.”

‘It didn’t happen overnight’

Dr. Usman reflects on the reasons behind the dramatic loss of water at Goronyo dam “Although the water level had suddenly dropped, this did not happen in one season. There had been gradual decrease in the capacity of the reservoir over the years which might not have been noticed due to gradual sedimentation. Right now, there are some islands created in the reservoir which attest to sediment accumulation.”He opines “Other factors which could have led to decline in the volume of water in the reservoir, include large water releases due to flood inflows, high evaporation resulting from increase in temperatures, and low precipitation due to frequent droughts.”