General T Y Danjuma (rtd), has said the Trans Sahara superhighway project, if concluded, has the potential to provide clean water to millions of people along the route through the desalination plants.

Gen. Danjuma said at the inauguration of the Governing Council and Boards of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE)-Taming African Deserts (NSE-TAD) that the project also has the potential for power generation through harnessing the abundant solar and wind energy.

He said the project would open and landlocked countries such as Niger, Mali and Chad and boost trade and cultural exchange between countries in addition to the potential to create millions of jobs direct and indirectly for the teeming restive unemployed youths across the continent.

General Danjuma said "the Trans Sahara highway also has the opportunity to provide alternative route for fibre optic broadband cables and pipelines for gas and oil transportation across the continent - all these cannot be overemphasized."

In his remarks at the event, Dr. Newton Jibunoh, founder of Fight Against Desert Encroachment (FADE Africa), lamented the ongoing crisis in Mali while people are being deprived of basic necessities like water etc. He therefore called for the need for mitigation and not adaptation against those issues responsible for climate change pattern in sub Saharan Africa.