Bakolori irrigation project

Bakolori Dam
Location of Bakolori Dam in Nigeria
Location	Nigeria
Coordinates	12°30′43″N 6°11′0″E / 12.51194°N 6.18333°E / 12.51194; 6.18333Coordinates: 12°30′43″N 6°11′0″E / 12.51194°N 6.18333°E / 12.51194; 6.18333
Construction began	1974
Opening date	1978
Dam and spillways
Type of dam	Earth-fill embankment
Impounds	Sokoto River
Height	48m
Length	360m
Reservoir
Total capacity	450,000,000 cu.m

The Bakolori Dam is in Sokoto State in the Northwest of Nigeria, completed in 1978 and its reservoir filled by 1981. It is a major reservoir on the Sokoto River, a tributary of the Rima River, which in turn feeds the Niger River. Water from the dam supplies the Bakolori Irrigation Project. The dam has a capacity of 450 million cubic meters, with a reservoir covering 8,000 hectares extending 19 km (12 mi) upstream. The dam construction project displaced many peasant farmers without providing alternative land or financial compensation. Many people died in protests over their loss of livelihood. The project has become known as a classic example of development failure.

The Sokoto River runs through the semi-arid Sudan Savannah zone of northern Nigeria. Annual rainfall is unpredictable, ranging from 500 mm to 1,300 mm per year during the June–September period. Before construction of the dam, about 50,000 farmers in the Sokoto River floodplain practiced intensive recession farming, growing rice and sorghum in the wet season and vegetable crops such as onions, garlic and tomatoes in the dry season. Many farmers used the Shadoof practice of lifting water from the river to pour into irrigation channels or ponds. Women in purdah do not usually work the field but do have ownership rights and assist in processing. Women who are not under seclusion are active in farming. Often the land was owned communally without formal records of ownership.

Farmers in the area, living at subsistence levels, were more concerned with avoiding risk than maximizing profit. The area is subject to periodic droughts, and the desire for a stable water supply was one of the motives for constructing the dam.

In 1969 the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) issued a report that recommended a small dam and irrigation scheme at Talata Mafara, with further upstream dams for flood control. The FAO report emphasized the importance of a gradual approach that would have minimal impact on existing land use patterns, in part because of lack of experience with irrigation projects in the region. In 1971 the Nigerian military government invited proposals for design and supervision of the project and, in 1972, awarded the job to Impresit Bakolori Nigeria, a company owned 60% by the Nigerian government and 40% by a subsidiary of FIAT. During the 1972–1974 study period the scope of the project expanded to cover a single large dam and a large-scale mechanized irrigation scheme. Local farmers were not consulted in the planning process and no study was made of the downstream impact.