Nigeria Content Online

The
long dredging of the lower River Niger, which is expected to pass
through 152 riverine communities at a huge N36 billion, is half
completed, Ahmed Aminu, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Inland
Waterways Authority (NIWA), disclosed on Wednesday.

Mr. Aminu told a
House of Representatives team that the 572 kilometers project started by
President Umaru Yar’Adua, has progressed at a steady speed and has left
no significant negative impact on the marine ecology and the adjoining
communities.

With the
development, he said, barges and small ships of 3000 metric tons can now
sail from Warri in Delta State, to Baro in Niger State.

“The former Minister
of Works (Mr. Ibramin Isa Bio) had said that it is about 60 per cent
completed, but that was an estimate,” he said.

“Work on Lot 2,
from bifurcation of Nuns River and Forcados, to Onitsha and Lot 4, from
Idah to Jamata, is about 80 to 90 per cent completed,” he told the
members of the South-South Parliamentary Caucus of the House of
Representatives, led by Andrew Uchendu, which said it met with the
managing director to appraise the progression of the project.

He said that the
project is divided into five lots, but that on the average, about 50 per
cent is completed. He also disclosed that NIWA is still working on the
inland ports that would facilitate cargo handling and sundry commercial
activities.

On the impact of
the dredging on the environment, he told the caucus that “there is no
way the dredging would affect the inflow and outflow of its
tributaries, since the dredging is not done with embankments.”

“The project is
being undertaken under the strict terms of the Environmental Impact
Assessment (EIA) carried out in 2002.

“So far, we have not heard any complaint from any community, because
the dredged materials, except in Lokoja, are usually dumped 300 metres
from the dredged channels. And you know that the Niger is on the average
about a kilometre wide. So the materials are still dumped into the
river,” he said.