Daily Trust

Written by Ayegba Israel Ebije, Minna Wednesday, 16 March 2011 00:00

The Kainji Dam in Niger State is Nigeria’s foremost hydro power station. Our reporter visited recently and spoke to locals and senior officials at the dam.
The word ‘Kainji’ may mean so many things to many people across Africa. To Nigerians it refers to the symbol of the foremost hydro power station in the country, which has been delivering the mandate of supplying the country with electricity in the past 42 years.

To others, the word ‘Kainji’ may mean the dam off the River Niger which cuts across Niger and Kebbi states, while some people will think of the fishing potentials the Lake offers to its immediate community.

This reporter   recently took a look at the confines of the hydro power station built in the Kainji Lake, and the potentials it offers to the communities living around it in the area.

The Kainji hydro electric power station according to research, is one of the longest dams in the world, which offers so many valuable resources to the country, as it does not only hold forth as a major player in power generation and supply,  but also stands as an attraction for  creative minds.

Work started on the lake for the construction of the dam in 1964 and this lasted for four years, ending in 1968 with an installed power generating capacity of 800 megawatts of electricity.

At the completion of work on the dam, the government of Nigeria had expended a total of 209 million dollars, which includes cost of construction and resettlement of people displaced, as a result of the construction of the dam.

Usman Zubairu, an 85-year-old man living in one of the sixty communities around the vicinity of the dam, goes down memory lane, revealing how work started at the place ahead of the construction of the dam.

He disclosed that work on the dam was expected to commence in the late fifties but was put on hold, saying that then the federal government had announced that people could apply to be engaged as labourers.

“When work commenced after what seemed like an infinity, I got the opportunity to be among the hundreds of labourers at the dam site, as we had the duty to move heavy equipment to and from the lake.

The use of heavy equipment helped us in controlling the lake which in those days was fast running. The job was rigorous and slow, but gradually with some cost to human and resources, the dam was finally completed,” he said.

Daily Trust investigations revealed that reason behind the establishment of the dam was to address the power problem in the then Nigeria, which was basically characterized by diesel powered generators in parts of the country, while the larger part remained in darkness.

As the Nigerian population with electricity needs continued to grow with considerable amount of industries, the need to diversify into other sources of electricity became imperative, and the need to have one with large capacity to generate huge amount of power became a very important factor.

Electricity in those formative years of Nigeria’s history was as scarce as the falling stars, where people sit outside to watch the distant glow of electricity mostly in factories or homes of foreigners, especially in big cities like Lagos and Port Harcourt.

As the plan reached its implementation stage, it became necessary for engineers implementing it to consider using the old cables that supplied the generator powered electricity, as a main source of transmitting power to industrial and residential areas in parts of the country.

Therefore, the construction of Kainji dam was done with the intention of having the capacity of carrying up to 12 turbines to propel 12 generators to power the adequate power enough to go round the country.

The dam is ten kilometres in its massive extension, which is raised mostly with solid materials with the height of 215 feet high with a solid mass of concrete housing the 12 turbines.

The dam was however constructed with only eight turbines to drive the generators, leaving the hydro power station with only 760 megawatts to supply Nigeria, since it was commissioned in 1968.

For whatever   reason, the huge craterlike wells meant for the original plan of the hydro power station remain unattended to at the right flank of the massive power station, a reminder that the station is functioning right from inception below its original 960 megawatts of power generation to the country.

Ever since it commenced full operational activity to serve as the premium power station in the country, it has also been commissioned to give parts of neighbouring Niger republic electricity.

Engineer Samuel Tunji Sani, Head of Plant Service at the Kainji dam hydro power station, who spoke with this reporter earlier explained that the place is powered by the rushing waves of the trapped water in the dam.

He disclosed that the chamber housing the massive blades has a vent where water from the lake is released into,  through an aperture which he said allows fast moving water to hit the blades at an angle which automatically propels the blades at a very intense speed.

According to him, the blade is connected to the generator which is full of a consternation of coils, adding that when the blades turn power is generated, as it is then converted to electrical current ready to be transmitted for use.

Explaining the repair process, he disclosed that a very huge crane on the top most part of the Hydro power dam, is used to lift gates which allow divers to go deep into the water to repair the turbines.

The self propelled crane which rolls on wheels is used to lift the massive gates, allowing space for engineers to fiddle on broken down parts in the hydro power dam, each time damages occur.

The dam which has a group of highly skilled divers, are described as some of the best the country has,  as they are commissioned with the mandate of going down over twenty-five feet below the dam, to effect repairs on damaged units.

The divers who are predominantly Nigerians from the Niger Delta, are mostly on 24 hour alert, as their work requires night and day emergency standby,  to keep the power station running according to operational stipulations.

Functions expected of the divers include underground welding of broken parts, which are mostly fabricated by in house engineers working at the hydro power station.

Engineer Vincent Aligwara, the Head of Work Centre switch yard, told Daily Trust that the yard is the section of the dam complex that transmits power to other parts of the country.

He added that a line from the generating units is routed to Birnin-Kebbi, while the other is directed towards Jebba for onward transmission to the national grid, where it is further distributed to other parts of the country.

The switch yard is a part of the dam with a web like construction network of high tension cables, sitting on a compact floor made up of soil noted for its creaking sound as high voltage electricity run through its cables.

These massive networks of electric cables have been hosting the transmission channel of power outlet since the inception of the power station over forty years ago, as the place has only been expanded to cover more areas.

According to the head of the switch unit, electricity generated from the dam is controlled, meaning that it is not an exclusive preserve of the host state Niger, but a product to be used by the nation.

Explaining further, the engineer stated that the power from the power station is sent to a centralized pool called the national grid, which is then dispersed to various states through switch bases on instructions from relevant authorities.

He said it was possible for a better part of Niger state to be without light, adding that the decision depends on directives of power regulatory bodies, vested with the mandate to ration power among various substations in the country.

Explaining further, he revealed that contrary to the opinions of many outside the power sector that every time there is power outage it means that the dam has been shut down, he maintained that the generators run all year round.

He revealed that the generators except when in bad shape operate all year round, adding that they are never shutdown for any reason.

In his words; ‘Most Nigerians often make the mistake of thinking that whenever there is power outage it means that we in the power stations have switched off our generators. This line of thought is wrong as we never shut down generators, unless they are completely broken down,” he said.

He said power outages as earlier explained, occur due largely to rationing from the national grid, insisting that except during malfunctions no unit is shut down at the power station.

Our correspondent also gathered that the lake does not serve the purpose of assisting the generation of power alone, but provides enough fish for food and commercial purpose as the flanking environs are abodes for fishing communities.

The fish caught from the Kainji Lake end up mostly in the western part of Nigeria, especially Lagos and Ilorin, as fishermen take their catches far off to where they can have better value for their labour.

Hamisu Abdullahi, a fisherman, explained that the dam has sustained them in the area,  especially those of them who are fishermen, as he revealed that since he was born he has never had reasons to buy fish or had reasons to do any other business, aside selling fish.

He said that while Nigerians see the dam as a symbol of electricity, they are only concerned with the opportunity it provides them in terms of business and provision of food for the household.

He pointed to  the fact that they enjoy all year round farming , adding that the availability of water assists in the area of irrigation , adding that they plant the staples they eat in the place.

Abdullahi however frowned at a situation where the yearly flood destroys their homes, and in some cases claim lives insisting that the incident of dam related flood, has in no small way affected their lives negatively as all they work for ends mostly in scattered bits kilometres away, under the force of the fast moving floods.

He however stated that finding a place that will offer them opportunities like the dam is difficult, adding that they have lived in the area for as long as their great grand parents can remember.

“We have had a good life living within the shoreline of the lake, as fishing and farming business has been good. Our problem however is the fact that we are vulnerable to yearly flooding from the dam,” he said.

When engineers were asked to explain reason behind the yearly floods, our correspondent was told that as a matter of technical procedure what he called ‘excess water’ in the dams has to be released through the huge gates during peaks of rainfall.

Daily Trust learnt that it is not advisable to always leave the power station laden with excess water,  adding that it is often the process of releasing such amount for water to get standard gauge, that the water released floods communities around the dam.