The Minister of Water Resources, Engr. Joseph Utsev, has pledged to find solutions to the number of issues affecting the supply of water to sugar estates across the country. The Minister said supporting the National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) to achieve\u00a0 its mandate in the area of self-sufficiency in sugar production is a task that must be done, adding that his Ministry would do everything possible to tackle the identified stumbling blocks. The Minister said this on Tuesday when he hosted the Executive Secretary\/CEO of the NSDC, Mr. Kamar Bakrin, and his management team in his office. Mr. Bakrin sought the support of the Minister in addressing and finding lasting solutions to the issues surrounding irrigation and access to water which the sugar operators complain about. \u201cSugarcane requires a steady supply of between 1,500mm and 2,500mm of water throughout its extensive growth cycle, which spans 12 to 18 months. Without this, the crop suffers, leading to lower yields and diminished sugar content. \u201cSustainable water sourcing is required for modern irrigation which minimises environmental impact and enhances viability.Water availability impacts both sugarcane quality and yield. Sufficient water boosts sucrose levels, enhancing sugar output per hectare and supporting profitability.Sugarcane growth relies on water availability and enables optimal yields. \u201cSites with limited water access risk production failures, impacting both targets and local communities. Sustainable water management is essential for stable, long term growth,\u201d he said. Specifically, the NSDC boss sought the approval of the Minister for a 20km open canal water conveyance system from River Hadejia to Gagarawa in Jigawa state to service the Great Northern Nigeria Agri-business Limited which has a 5,000 TCD project in Hadejia. The Executive Secretary noted that the project will create more than 5,000 jobs from its farm and factory operations on completion. Going down memory lane, the ES informed the Minister that GNAL signed an MOU with the Jigawa State Government in June 2015 to develop a sugarcane farm and processing factory to produce 100,000 tons of sugar annually. \u201cBased on this MOU, GNAL acquired over 12,000Ha of farmland in Gagarawa LGA of the state. \u201cThe design and the tender process for the construction of the factory have been completed and more than 1,600 ha of land has been cleared up to date. \u201cIn 2018, a Water Use License with an annual water abstraction threshold of 249 millionm\u00b3 was granted to GNAL by the Federal Ministry of Water Resources for irrigation of the sugarcane farm. \u201cThe Gagarawa project zone has no surface water resources and the need to convey water through the open canal system from Hadejia River to the GNAL farm for the sugarcane cultivation and sugar mill operations is imperative. \u201cThe design of the project\u2019s Bulk Water Supply (BWS) and Field Irrigation System was completed in 2022 and submitted to the Federal Ministry of Water Resources for approval. However, this approval is yet to be granted,\u201d the NSDC boss said. He therefore requested that the Minister intervene and grant approval of GNAL\u2019s design of the sugar estate\u2019s Bulk Water Supply (BWS) and Field Irrigation System. Mr. Bakrin also sought the implementation of the Presidential approval for the exemption of businesses participating in the Nigeria Sugar Masterplan (NSMP) II from payment of Annual Right-of-Way or assigned water usage or any such fees under the National Inland Waterways Act. This request, he said, is essential to the success of the Dangote Sugar Refinery (DSR), Numan. \u201cA Presidential approval was given in March 2023 for the exemption of businesses participating in the NSMP from payment of Annual Right-of-Way or assigned water usage or any such fees under the National Inland Waterways Act. However, Savannah Sugar Company continues to face increasing water charges from Kiri Dam for its use of water despite this approval. \u201cDSR applied for the approval for the Ministry in 2022, to construct a Primary Canal that will supply water to parts of its estate. However, this request is still pending in the Ministry,\u201d he said. Other DSR-specific requests made by the NSDC team include the approval of its request to support the dredging of the Kiri Dam and the necessary Primary Canals; approval of DSR\u2019s request for the construction of a primary canal that will supply water to its estate. He noted that the project has a workforce of over 15,000 skilled and semiskilled workers and it\u2019s water usage is expected to increase as it places more land under cane. Mr. Bakrin also made a couple of proposals for Niger River Flooding Management to manage flood risk to Sunti, Niger state, where Golden Sugar Estate is located. The proposals include the conduct of regular dredging of the Niger River to enhance water flow capacity, installation of flow gauges along key points of the river to improve real-time monitoring and early warning capabilities and improvement of collaboration among key stakeholders connected to the river. The ES sought the enhancement of the ability to agree and generate targets for the coming season and the cycle of water releases from the reservoirs that would serve both power generation and irrigation needs, whilst optimising flood control. He also sought the significant improvement of meteorological and climatological forecasting, which will over time, enhance the capacity to anticipate and respond to flooding patterns. This project, he said, \u201chas created about 5,000 jobs but faces significant threat of flooding from the River Niger.\u201d The NSDC helmsman emphasised the importance of doing everything possible to ease local production, saying if all the bottlenecks are not removed, the operators will continue to import from Brazil. \u201cWe need to stop this because the harm it does to our economy is so significant. This is the reason they keep giving for why they say it is too expensive for us to produce locally. We can’t allow this to continue to happen. It is damaging the local economy,\u201d he said. Responding, the Minister frowned at the abysmal 3 percent local production of the country\u2019s annual sugar consumption, saying he is willing to work with the NSDC and other stakeholders to address the issues. \u201cYou are welcome. As we all know, sugarcane cannot actually do anything reasonable without water. Sugarcane is about 70% water content. Even if the fibres are there and the water is not there, it cannot be enhanced. So what we want to assure you is that the Ministry is open and available at all times to support the local production of sugar. Just give us the necessary information at the right time. That is just what we need to key into it. Because whatever we can do to support any person, organisation or private partners in achieving the mandate of the state, we are ready. So, I want to assure you that all the proposals here are welcome. \u201cSo once again, I want to thank you so much for the effort you are making in reviving this country economically and enhance the well-being of our people. We will look at it. And any support or any assistance you need from us, as I said, is welcome. Whether it\u2019s our agencies, whether it’s not our agencies and even other places somewhere else, it’s something that relates to our mandate, you are free to write to us. Even when there are instances we have to intervene with our sister ministries, you can as well reach out to us,\u201d the Minister said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Minister of Water Resources, Engr. Joseph Utsev, has pledged to find solutions to the number of issues affecting the supply of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":30373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n