Socio-economic Impact of Jebba Hydro Power Dam on some Downstream Communities in Niger State, Nigeria

Abstract

Ever since the construction of Jebba Dam the downstream communities have been subjected to several hardships as a result of flood occurrences and ether devastations caused by the dam. Many people lost their houses and other properties worth million of naira. Therefore the aim of this paper is to assess the socio-economic impacts of Jebba hydro power dam on some downstream communities in Niger State, Nigeria. The primary data were collected directly from the field survey, personal interview and questionnaire. The secondary data are those data that have been use previous researchers as well Niger State Emergency Management Agency documents oh environmental hazard associated to the study areas. Other secondary sources include Google Earth map of 2016, journals, textbooks, newspapers, unpublished, and published theses. Data collected using questionnaire and oral interview was analyzed statistically through frequency percentage and 3-point Likert type scale in die study area. As revealed in the result, some, downstream communities were less vulnerable and some were highly vulnerable to flood. The less vulnerable include Funti, Ogundu and Kpatsuwa. Highly vulnerable downstream communities of Jebba dam include Jebba Gungu, Muwo and Tatabu. As revealed in the study, loss of farm produce ranked, the highest with 137 respondents, loss of human lives and shelter ranked second with 111 respondents, loss livestock ranked third, with 35 respondents and loss of fishing equipment ranked the least with 28 respondents. This implies that the major socio-economic activity impacted was farm produce and die least was fishing equipment. The inhabitants of the study area were predominantly farmers and fishermen and so any impact on these occupations will translate to less socio-economic development. It’s therefore recommended that flood control structures or buffer zone should be created in areas of high and moderate, vulnerability. Multi-sectoral approach to flood mitigation as opposed to single sector should be promoted as there are inter-linkages in terms of flood effect on various aspects of society.