The Challawa Gorge Dam is in

Karaye Karaye is a Local Government Area and Headquarter of Karaye Emirate Council in Kano State, Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the town of Karaye. It has an area of 479 km and a population of 141,407 at the 2006 census. It accommodates the Nat ...

Local Government Area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...

Kano State Kano State (Hausa: ''Jihar Kano''جىِهَر كَنوُ) (Fula: Leydi Kano 𞤤𞤫𞤴𞤣𞤭 𞤳𞤢𞤲𞤮𞥅 ) is one of the 36 states of Nigeria, located in the northern region of the country. According to the national census done in ...

in the Northwest of

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

, about 90 km southwest of Kano city. It is a major reservoir on the Challawa River, a tributary of the

Kano River The is an A class river in Shizuoka Prefecture of central Japan. It is long and has a watershed of . The Kano River originates from Mount Amagi in central Izu Peninsula and follows a generally northern path into Suruga Bay at Numazu is a ci ...

, which is the main tributary of the Hadejia River.

Construction

The Challawa Gorge reservoir project was started by the Water Resources and Engineering Construction Agency of the Kano State Government, and was later handed over to the Federal Government who funded the project. The dam is owned and operated by the Hadejia-Jama’are River Basin Development Authority, a Federal agency. The dam was built by

Julius Berger Nigeria Julius Berger is a Nigerian construction company, headquartered in Abuja, with additional permanent locations in Lagos and Uyo. The company is represented across Nigeria in structural engineering and infrastructure works, and in southern Nigeria ...

in 1990 - 1992 using earth fill construction. It is 42 m high and 7.8 km in length. The dam has a full storage capacity of 930,000,000 and active storage of 904,000,000 m³. The direct catchment area is 3857 km².

Hydro power potential

The dam was designed with the potential for hydro power generation in mind, and may have a capacity of 3MW on average - more in the rainy season and less in dry season. However, power would cost considerably more to deliver than current retail prices, and it is not clear how a project to install the generating equipment would be financed.

Issues

The soil in the immediate catchments of the dam has not been stabilized, so the reservoir may be silting up. Silt is also being deposited in the Challawa River, affecting the intake structures of Kano City Water Supply. The dam has disrupted the natural balance along the river. Upstream areas are now subject to flooding while downstream riverine wetlands and croplands have dried out. The dam is intended to support irrigation projects, such as Hadejia Valley Irrigation Scheme which had been started since 1990, although only about 6,000 Ha were achieved, representing about 30% of the planned area only for decades. Amongst other competing uses of the dam is water supply to Kano city, informal irrigation at the river banks, recreation etc.The Challawa dam and the nearby

Tiga Dam The Tiga Dam is in Kano State in the Northwest of Nigeria, constructed in 1971–1974. It is a major reservoir on the Kano River, the main tributary of the Hadejia River. Description The dam was built during the administration of Governor Aud ...

have also had adverse effects on the downstream

Hadejia-Nguru wetlands 300px, Yobe River catchment area showing location of the Hadejia-Nguru wetlands The Hadejia-Nguru wetlands in Yobe State in northern Nigeria, which include Nguru Lake, are ecologically and economically important. They are threatened by reduced r ...

. Several studies have shown that these dams have delivered negative economic value when their effect on downstream communities was taken into account.

References

{{Dams in Nigeria Dams in Nigeria Kano State Yobe State Dams completed in 1992