Malam Abdu Dahiru, the Managing Director Hadeja-Jama'are River Basin Development Authority, one of the 12 river basins in the country, has called for the federal government's assistance in the maintenance of dams.

Dahiru told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja that while most old dams in the country lacked maintenance services, others were under-utilized, thereby causing a redundancy in the water sector.

He said it was not enough to construct new dams when existing ones were under-utilised due to lack of funds.

Dahiru advocated for capacity building and funding to ensure effective dam instrumentation and safety. "The River Basins are these entities that support the lives of millions of people like the Challawa and the Tiga dams; they support the lives of about 20 million people across Kano, Jigawa, Maiduguri and Chad axis.

So the challenges are that huge amounts of money were invested to put up these dams but then not adequate amount had been planned and adequately appropriated for the maintenance."

NAN