The Managing Director and Chief Government Officer of the Ogun-Osun River Basin Improvement Authority, Dr Adedeji Ashiru, disclosed on Wednesday that the Federal Authorities has finalised plans to assemble seven dams within the six southwestern states for irrigation functions and to boost meals manufacturing.
Ashiru additionally revealed that plans are ongoing to concession the hydropower-generating element of the Oyan Dam to spice up the nation’s energy provide.
He stated that the dam, which was put in with three generators at its development in 1979, is able to producing 9 megawatts of electrical energy.
Ashiru disclosed this whereas talking on “Creating Methods for Administration of Ecological Challenges” on the forty sixth Annual Convention and Annual Normal Assembly of the Affiliation for Consulting Engineering in Nigeria, held in Lagos.
The AGM and annual convention’s theme was “Sustainable Improvement: Constructing Resilient Cities.”
Ashiru confused that dams play a serious position in addressing ecological issues reminiscent of flooding, as they assist management massive surges of water that may in any other case escape downstream and trigger havoc.
He acknowledged that had it not been for the foresight that led to the development of the Oyan Dam in 1979, some components of Abeokuta and your complete Isheri space, amongst different communities, would have been submerged by floodwater by now.
In keeping with President Bola Tinubu’s agenda to spice up meals manufacturing and management flooding, the Federal Authorities has concluded plans to construct seven dams for irrigation functions and improve meals manufacturing within the Southwest.
Ashiru defined, “We’re constructing seven dams within the Southwest, and the contracts ought to be awarded between now and Friday. These dams are primarily for irrigation functions, in step with President Bola Tinubu’s agriculture agenda to allow all-year-round farming and increase meals manufacturing.
“Every location of those dams may have 12 greenhouses and open fields for farming. We can even have storage homes to retailer the farm produce.”
He added that there are ongoing discussions about concessioning the dam for energy technology, with talks at the moment happening with traders, and hoped to finish the concession plans by subsequent 12 months.
Ashiru additionally talked about that though the Oyan Dam, commissioned in 1979 with three generators for producing 9 megawatts of energy, solely operated for one hour after its commissioning, severe efforts are actually underway to maximise its potential.
He urged the consulting engineers to all the time apply their experience to assemble buildings able to dealing with flooding and different results of local weather change.
Ashiru stated, “The bedrock of engineering is design, and the first accountability of members of ACEN is to supply designs for engineering works. They need to due to this fact incorporate inexperienced know-how into their designs to assist cut back the affect of worldwide warming and local weather change.”
The MD additionally advocated for stronger environmental rules, capability constructing for professionals within the engineering trade, in addition to common engagement and powerful collaboration with stakeholders to realize resilient cities.
Earlier, the President of the affiliation, Kem-Selem Bukar, stated that this 12 months’s AGM theme was knowledgeable by varied climatic challenges and ecological points, notably flooding, going through each the nation and the globe.
Bukar famous that on the finish of the two-day convention, the affiliation would suggest plans to realize resilient cities, with suggestions being channelled to the suitable authorities.
Commenting on the frequent constructing collapses within the nation, he stated that as Chairman of the Engineering Regulatory, Monitoring and Enforcement Committee of the Council for Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, 10 rules had lately been developed to deal with the problem of constructing collapse nationwide.
Bukar stated, “Previously, the dearth of enacted rules hindered progress, however with the present management of COREN, we now have greater than ten rules that we are able to work with for a paradigm shift in engineering regulation.”
“Within the close to future, you’ll start to see elevated monitoring and enforcement on this space. We now have problems with quackery and violation of engineering rules, and we’ve discovered that these concerned should not registered professionals. None of these investigated lately have been registered members of associations like ACEN.”
Bukar confused that with the brand new rules signed into regulation, anybody discovered responsible of infractions will face penalties, together with fines, imprisonment, or seizure of their licences.
He stated it was worrying that the nation experiences as much as three constructing collapse incidents every week, however that efforts are ongoing to sort out sharp practices and substandard engineering processes.
