By Chris Ochayi

ABUJA— The Federal Government has allocated 1, 027,040,323 as its contribution to the Lake Chad Basin Commission, LCBC, in the 2017 fiscal proposal of the Ministry of Water Resources.

The LCBC was established on May 22, 1964 by the four countries that border Lake Chad, namely Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria and Chad. The Republic of Central Africa joined the organisation in 1996, Libya was admitted in 2008.

According to the 2017 budget proposal of the ministry obtained by Vanguard, several other projects running into billions of naira were listed for execution in the fiscal year.

Most significant is the N1,479,458,876 allocated for liquidation of liabilities, debts owed in respect of construction of dams across the country.

President Buhari

Others are construction of boreholes in the six local government areas of Kebbi North senatorial district, Kebbi State, for N30 million and Tada-Shonga irrigation project for N617.7 million.

Special intervention for North-East and IDPs, at least 200 water points using cost estimate by BPP, N922 million; rehabilitation and reticulation of Ojarimi Dam water supply and reticulation, N270 million; and construction of dam embankment, spill way, inlet and outlet structures at Jare earth dam, N461 million.

Other projects include purchase, installation, and calibrations of water quality laboratory equipment for the newly constructed Maiduguri laboratory, N422 million, construction of water scheme in Tafawa Balewa LGA, Bauchi State, N792.9 million and construction of Mangu dam in Plateau State, N276 million as well as Mangu regional water supply scheme intake and distribution network, N573 million.

Also captured in the budget are construction of Upu-Itor small earth dam, N101m, wash emergency coordination, assessment and response, N298m, rehabilitation and upgrading of Takum water supply N171m, continuation of construction of four new laboratories in Makurdi, Asaba, Port-Harcourt and Umuahia, N468m.