FG’s Negligence Endangering Farmer’s Lives In Enugu

Farmers in Mpu and Okpanku communities in Aninri Local Government Area of Enugu State are endangered by the ravages of an abandoned dam on the Ivo River.

It was a project facilitated by former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, and was started in 2012 but never completed.

The Ivo River Dam was conceptualized to enhance crop production, fishery, and electricity generation, and to enable the host communities to engage in intensive cultivation of edible and industrial crops, food processing, agro-allied businesses, and marketing of farm products.

But the construction was not completed as the dam was left without spillways. Now, anytime there’s heavy rainfall, the dam spills over the farmlands, destroying crops and the livelihood of the people.

The victims of the perennial flooding emanating from the Ivo River Damare are the people of Mpu and Okpanku communities, among others in Aninri LGA of Enugu State and those of Ebonyi State.

The victims are many and now live at the mercy of the elements while the government looks away. Mazi Chukwu Ogbonnaya, in his sixties, is now a refugee in his locality after flooding from the dam destroyed his farm—his only means of livelihood.

The floods came unceasingly for nearly three months and gave them no respite. His farm, spanning hectares of land where he cultivated cassava and rice, was washed away. Now idle with his wife and children, Ogbonnaya is wishing for death.

“I have nothing to do. If death wants to come, let it come. I live in a hopeless situation. The government should rescue us. I have nine children. One of them is undergoing an apprenticeship. How do I feed my family? The flood is very deep. I need help at all costs,” he told THE WHISTLER.

Francis Okorie, who cultivates rice in Mpu, is also a victim. His rice farm was also completely washed away by the flood waters, leaving him and his family nothing.

THE WHISTLER met him at the edge of what used to be a flourishing rice farm. He had come to see if the flood remained anything for him to salvage. But there was nothing.

“Everything I planted here; this dam finished it. Nothing is remaining,” he said, shaking his head in obvious frustration.

“Governments should come to our help. This dam that is not completed has caused a lot of harm. There is hunger in the land. Aninri means land of food, but this failed dam is making our land a land of famine. We are suffering as I talk to you. Let my message get to the government. I have eight children, and I live with seven of them. Feeding them is a huge problem for us.”

Charles Iregbu is from Obeagu Mpu in the Achi Orie autonomous community. His farmland is also submerged by the flood. According to him, “Federal government brought this dam to Achi Orie to enable all-year-farming. The flood has destroyed all our plants. For the past three months, it has been so. We are living in hunger, my entire family and aged mother. There is nothing I can do. Apart from rice, it has also destroyed our cassava. I am not the only person. We are all crying. Hunger is killing all of us. The entire places flooded were cultivated cassava and rice. It runs over many hectares of land. This is our sole means of livelihood.”

Mrs Augustina Okorie, another victim, said “This is my rice plantation. I won’t do anything again. The water is coming from the dam. I don’t have any other farm, except here. If there is any help we can get from the government, let them help. It has been happening like this over the years.”

Stakeholders Rue The Failed Dam Project

Cyprian Ajah is a farmer and writer. He said, “It’s unfortunate that the project has been stalled. What I don’t know is the cause of abandoning the project. Honestly, it’s a project that would have boosted our economy in various ways. We are looking forward to its completion anytime soon. The differences it would have made in our locality are numerous. It would have served as a source of irrigation to farmers during the dry season. This implies that there would have been an abundance of food around the season. Aninri being the food basket of Enugu State would have been supplying food to other Eastern states from year to year. Even now it has not been completed, farmers do make use of the reserved water to cultivate rice from January to May.

“But the moment it gets towards the end of May, everyone quits the environment because of the flood. If the project had been completed, it would have served as a source of freshwater supply from the dam. I’m pleading to the federal and state governments to complete the Ivo River dam which has been abandoned by the past government. Despite the hardship in the country, the federal government can complete the project. The entire southeast stands to gain from the project if completed because the food will be made available to all states through the use of the dam. The project is fast dilapidating due to neglect. It must not be allowed to go moribund.”

A youth leader at Mpu, Clement Omeh, expressed the disappointment of the people. He said, “We celebrated when that project started. The river begins from Uturu in Abia State and passes through our place to the Anambra River. It was initially awarded to an Israeli construction company before being re-awarded to an indigenous company, which later abandoned it. I don’t know about its funding, but the project that we thought would be our main source of livelihood has turned out to be the major source of our tears. Our people are known for agriculture. That is why we are called Aninri, meaning the land of food. This abandoned dam requires urgent government attention.”

Contractors, Ministry of Water Resources Keep Mum

Ambeez Services Nigeria Limited is the indigenous contractor that handled the dam to its current abandoned state. Its founder, Eng Anayo Onwuegbu, did not respond to the message sent to him by THE WHISTLER despite the proof of having seen it. Fact-checks show that he had in January 2021 spoken on the abandoned dam following a barrage of criticisms coming from the natives of the area.

Onwuegbu, who coincidentally represents Anrini/Oji River Federal Constituency in the National Assembly, had stated “I have nothing to worry about negative comments or reports on Ambeez Services, especially with regards to the Ivo Dam projects. I am yet to recover all my debts in the projects, and I will soon get Federal Executive Council’s approval of over N1bn for the projects.”

Similarly, the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, the agency overseeing the project, did not fulfil its promise of furnishing this reporter with the cause of the non-completion of the dam, the amount already expended, the name of the contractor as well as whether it is aware of the ecological disasters farmers in the area face as a result of the abandoned project.

Fumi Imoetiyan is the Director of Press at, the Federal Ministry of Water Resources. When our reporter spoke with her on the phone, she said, “I can’t answer your question because I am not the director of dam projects. Let me get to the office and link you to him.” She got to the office and demanded this reporter put his questions in writing and forward them to her WhatsApp number, which was done. However, four days after the submission of the questions, Fumi neither replied to the questions nor agreed to be called for verbal clarifications.

Possibility of Enugu State Government’s Intervention

Engr Gerald Otigi is the Commissioner for Works in Enugu State. He said the project belongs to the federal government, and that it would take some processes before the state could either take it over fully or in partnership. He however advised the affected areas to write to the state government.

He said, “The natives need to write to the agency and copy the state. Or they write the state and copy the agency in charge of the dam. We cannot take over people’s property, but we can do remedial work on projects that are destroying things in our state. They can write directly to the governor himself, and he will direct them on the next line of action. That will be the best thing to do so that it won’t cause damage to farmlands and people’s homes.”

The state Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr Patrick Ubru, however, said the state government was aware of the predicaments farmers in the affected areas are passing through. He said already some palliatives had been sent to the victims.

In his words, “We are aware of the dam and the flood. We are also interfacing with the federal government to rehabilitate that dam. We have also started reaching out to the flood victims through the ministry. His Excellency Gov Peter Mbah has approved some palliatives for them. For Okpanku and Oduma, we are already sending interventions to them. Last week, we began the distribution of free improved seeds and cassava cuttings. You can ask the communities to ascertain if we have waded in. The president general of one of the affected communities was in my office over this matter. We are awake to our responsibility as a government. The state government is already proactive.”

Botched Moves To Fix The Dam 

In January 2023, the House of Representatives asked the Ministry of Water Resources to complete the abandoned Ivo River dam project. The demand followed a motion sponsored by Makwe Makwe, a lawmaker who represented the Ohaozara/Onicha/Ivo Federal Constituency of Ebonyi State.

The project, it was revealed, was awarded N4.5bn in 2012. Makwe had contended that “On the abandonment of the project, without the spillway being in place, the farmlands and rural settlements in the upstream communities have been inundated and sacked by flood, which has before the construction of the dam never experienced such for ages. Over 40,000 acres of arable farmland and rural settlement communities have remained permanently flooded to date as a result of the dam embankment, and during the rainy seasons, the flood gets higher and spreads more to inland communities, thereby sacking the rural dwellers and inundating farmlands, rendering over 10,000 households homeless and inundating about 70 per cent of their farmlands.”

FG’s Negligence Endangering Farmer’s Lives In Enugu is first published on The Whistler Newspaper