Ikere Gorge Dam | |
---|---|
Location | Oyo State, Nigeria |
Coordinates | 8°10′35″N3°44′11″E / 8.17639°N 3.73639°E |
Dam and spillways | |
Impounds | Ogun River |
Reservoir | |
Creates | Ikere Gorge Dam |
Total capacity | 690 million m3 |
Surface area | 47 km2 |
The Ikere Gorge Dam is a major earth-fill dam in Iseyin local government area of Oyo State in the south west of Nigeria on the Ogun River. Reservoir capacity is 690 million m3. [1] The dam was initiated by the military regime of General Olusegun Obasanjo and started in 1983 by the administration of Shehu Shagari. The dam was planned to generate 37.5 MW of electricity, to supply water to local communities and to Lagos and to irrigate 12,000 hectares of land. Built in 1982/1983, work on the dam was abandoned by subsequent military governments. [2] A report for the UN in 2004 said that, no irrigation had taken place so far, but efforts were being made to implement one of the five planned irrigation projects. The project was based on the sprinkler system which is difficult to manage and requires that the farmers be trained.
The dam was built to support a hydropower project, but due to equipment shortages and environmental changes, the project has remained a mirage. Additionally, it has an impact on fish farming.
The majority of local residents lack access to power. A 33-KVA rural electrification project in the region was launched by the federal government years ago. However, the only remaining traces of that endeavor are the concrete poles.
The first elected president of Nigeria, Shehu Shagari, had a hydropower project planned with the dam in the 1980s that was also scrapped. Even the German business Garbe, Lahmeyer & Co., which produced the two turbines used to generate electricity from the dam, went out of business in 1993.
As a result of the 40-year abandonment of the project, the multi-million equipment including alternators, two turbines of 3-MW each and other electrical components are now rusty.
Hydropower, also known as water power or water energy, is the use of falling or fast-running water to produce electricity or to power machines. This is achieved by converting the gravitational potential or kinetic energy of a water source to produce power. Hydropower is a method of sustainable energy production. Hydropower is now used principally for hydroelectric power generation, and is also applied as one half of an energy storage system known as pumped-storage hydroelectricity.
Small hydro is the development of hydroelectric power on a scale suitable for local community and industry, or to contribute to distributed generation in a regional electricity grid. Exact definitions vary, but a "small hydro" project is less than 50 megawatts (MW), and can be further subdivide by scale into "mini" (<1MW), "micro" (<100 kW), "pico" (<10 kW). In contrast many hydroelectric projects are of enormous size, such as the generating plant at the Three Gorges Dam at 22,500 megawatts or the vast multiple projects of the Tennessee Valley Authority.
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Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari was a Nigerian politician who was the first democratically elected president of Nigeria, after the transfer of power by military head of state General Olusegun Obasanjo in 1979, which gave rise to the Second Nigerian Republic.
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