By; JABIRU A. HASSAN, Kano
Kunnawa Dam, situated at Kunnawa in Dawakin Tofa Local Government Area of Kano State was first constructed through a self-help initiative by the people of the host community. It was broken in 2018 after it was repaired by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development under the on-farm water harvest structure by the department of climate change.
After the repairs, the dam again broke down after only two seasons and up till now, it has not been fixed despite so many calls from the host communities which comprise; Kunnawa, Waddau, Gudau Dungurawa, Dan Amar and Dorowar Shehu.
Our correspondent who was at the dam site on Saturday, gathered that if repaired, Kunnawa Dam would provide job opportunities to over 2,000 people, mostly youth who usually troop into the cities in search of something to do which is a great set back to the host communities.
In the last two years when Kunnawa Dam was in active use, there were bumper harvest resulting in over 35,000 Naira sales from tomatoes, onions, pepper, lettuce, rice, maize and water melon boosting the income of the people in the area.
Our correspondent who had an interactive session with farmers and herders, including community leaders reported that all supports geared towards bringing back to life the dam have so far proved abortive.
Malam Yahaya Aliyu, the village head of Kunnawa told New Nigerian that Kunnawa Dam was first constructed in 1967 manually by the people of the host communities using local equipments.
Explaining further, he said the dam served as a place for irrigation farming, fishery, livestock consumption and weekend games.
Malam Aliyu regretted however that the place had now become unutilized due to the current sorry state of the dam.
He called on the federal ministry of agriculture to come to the aid of the dam because it serves as an arena of economic development, employment opportunity and this promotes peace and unity across the host communities.
Malam Ya’u Sarkin Fulani who is also the ward head of Waddau, disclosed that repairing Kunnawa Dam would boost dry season farming in the area assuring that the place was an economically viable place for farmers and herders because, according to him herdsmen had been stationed for over 20 years living peacefully with the host community.
Commenting on the issue, Malam Suleiman Umar who spoke on behalf of farmers and Ardo Alhaji Geza, herdsmen representative, expressed hopes that the dam would be repaired before this year’s rainfall in order to boost dry season farming and livestock consumption.
