From Umar Dankano, Yola
The Federal government has been urged to as a matter of utmost importance and urgency construct the abondaned Dasin Hausa Dam situated in Fufore local government areas of Adamawa state.
Findings have shown that the former Military President Muhammadu Buhari’s led junta then initiated and commenced the construction of the Dasin-Hausa Dam in the 1980s to be tackling the release of overflow of water usually released by Lagdo Dam authorities in Cameroun and to promote irrigation farming in the river bank communities but was abandoned due change in government.
Communities around the River Benue in Yola South, Fufore, Girei and Numan local government areas made the plea during the sensitisation and training for farmers on climate change and its remedies organised by The African Activists for Climate Change Justice, AACJ in conjunction with Human and Environmental Development Agenda Resource Centre (HEDA).
At the community outreach programs tagged ‘Amplifying the voices of climate frontier communities’ held on Monday and Tuesday separately in the affected communities of the four local government areas, the local farmers observed that the efficacy of the proposed Dasin Hausa Dam is not in doubt as it will address the major challenge of flood in the state.
Ward heads of Wuro-check of Rugange Community in Yola South and Imburu Community in Numan local government areas, Alhaji Sa’ad Muhammad Wuro-chekke and chief Imyaleyo Bulus Imburu decried that Nigeria failed to fulfil the agreement reached with the Cameroun authorities over construction of Dasin-Hausa to compliment the impact of water flow releases from Lagdo Dam which causes destruction of farm products, properties and even human/animal lives in some cases.
Earlier in his presentation, Head of the team, Sulaiman Arigbabu said the awareness advocacies were organised with the aim of gathering the individual experiences of the peasant farmers and as a community so that deliberations and decisions can reached unanimously in the best interest of all.
Sulaiman explained that issues relating to climate change such as drought, Deforestation, air pollution flood, desert encroachment, erosion and many others are majorly caused by human activities and therefore need human solutions to amend the considerations for environmental development.
He also announced that the farmers should use the knowledge impacted on them for the benefit of themselves and their communities noting that the exercise will be conducted for farmers in other parts of the country.
In their responses on the training, Kabiru Abba Wuro-wekke and Jamila Mohammed recounted their various flood experiences stressing that in 2022 flood, they lost all they laboured for in their farms.
They applauded the efforts of the organizations for the opportunity given to them describing it as “a golden and timely intervention taken at the right right toward the right direction”.
“We are now enlightened on the best ways to approach climate change in our communities”.They affirmed
Our Correspondent reported that a total of 80 residents were trained during the community outreach in the 4 communities visited in two days of sensitisation engagement.