The Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Professor Joseph Utsev, has warned against farming and sand mining activities on the project site and shores of Alau dam in Borno State.

The 40-year-old dam collapsed last September following the 2024 floods that claimed 150 lives, with the destruction of infrastructures, houses and farms.

Utsev, who gave the warnings in Maiduguri during the N80b reconstruction and upgrade assessment visit to the project site located 22km off Bama Road, said government will see to the level of completing the dam project to provide potable and irrigation water, assuring that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu under the Renewed Hope Agenda is to complete the dam in the second phase of project in March 2027.

He, however, condemned the farming activities around the area, which are hindering the successful completion of the project. He, therefore, urged Governor Babagana Zulum to sensitise the farming communities on the ecological dangers and other implications of encroaching the shores and embankments of a dam.

Speaking on the specifications and capacity of Alau dam, the Minister stated, “it is designed to hold a maximum of 329  cubic metres of water, while the current dam volume stood at 326.8 cubic metres of water,” noting that the volume is lower than the one experienced in 2024.

Continuing, he added, “in case of any suspicion of the dam to burst, I have directed the contractor handling the ongoing project to open any of three dykes.”

Explaining that the dykes’ openings will allow the free flow of water into rivers Yedzaram and Ngadda that crisscross Maiduguri metropolis and Jere Local Council area, he further revealed that in addition to the provision of irrigation water to the Lake Chad Basin, the dam after its completion, will also generate a hydro electric power for distribution to the Northeast region comprising six states.