Zauro polder project facts for kids
The Zauro polder project is an irrigation plan for the Rima River floodplain in Kebbi State, Nigeria.
The project started because the yearly rainfall in Kebbi, is not much. It is about 800 millimetres (31 in). The temperatures are about 26 °C (79 °F), ranging from 21 to 40 °C (70 to 104 °F) between April and June. With these, there is little or no farming. Dams and irrigation plans are ways by which the government wants to use the abundant water of the rainy season for farming in the dry season.
Delays
The state government and the federal ministry of agriculture and water resources started the plan for the project started in 1969. However, there have been repeated delays.
As at July 1995 there was nothing being done on the project. In March 2003, while campaigning for reelection in Birnin Kebbi, President Olusegun Obasanjo promised to complete the project. In October 2006 the Federal and Kebbi state governments signed a memorandum of understanding for execution of the project, at an estimated cost of N15 billion. In May 2008 President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua ordered work to start immediately on the first part of the project, which was now estimated to cost over N18.5 billion. In January 2009 Kebbi State governor Sa'idu Dakingari said work would soon start.
