By Marie-Therese Nanlong
Three local government areas of Bokkos, Bassa and Barkin Ladi in Plateau State being parts of the Hydroelectric Power Producing Areas Development Commission, HYPPADEC, have presented a 10-point requests to the Commission saying meeting the demands would support them in the areas that will be beneficial to them.
This is even as the Commission is working to engage 300 people from those areas; comprising of youths, women and people with disabilities in skills empowerment schemes and support security agencies with mobility to stem the tide of insecurity in the host communities.
These were disclosed at the weekend in Jos during a day stakeholders’ meeting on dissemination of reports on the needs assessment exercise organized by HYPPADEC in collaboration with her development/technical partner, the New Approach.
Speaking at the event, the Managing Director of HYPPADEC, Abubakar Sadiq explained that the Commission was out to address challenges bedevilling electricity power producing communities, noting that since 1929, Plateau State has been generating electricity but has not benefited any significant thing from companies utilizing their resources.
To remedy the situation, the MD stated the Commission is established to among other things, carry out survey of hydroelectric power producing areas in order to implement all measures approved for the development of hydroelectric power producing areas, identify factors inhibiting the development of hydroelectric power producing areas and assist in the formulation and implementation of policies to ensure sound and efficient management of the resources of HYPPADEC zones.
He noted the Commission is working to mitigate some of the ecological challenges and environmental impacts faced by communities within hydropower sites and “The three local government areas in Plateau state will have 100 motorcycles and the purpose is to support the State and the communities in addressing security challenges by making them available to the vigilante, the Police and the DSS manning these communities.
“About the 300 people, it is youth’s transformation programme, we have realized that there are so many unemployed youths in these communities as a result, it is not possible to employ everyone so we encourage these youths to learn skills, when the learn between three to six months, we will give them startup packs, the kits they need to practice what they learnt. We will reach out to financial institutions that can give them further funding. This will be a continuous exercise every six months.
“37 skills have been identified including fish farming, shoemaking, dressmaking, poultry, hairdressing, automation mechanic, building, pop, solar power technology, etc. Women will have a minimum of 30% opportunity, people with disabilities will have a minimum of 10%, the essence is for them to have a sense of belonging and be financially independent.”
Earlier, the Chairman of Bokkos local government area, Joseph Guluwa speaking shortly after the meeting stated, “We made a 10-point request to HYPPADEC to support us in the areas that will be beneficial to us. As a local government, we have lost over 300 hectares of land to the construction of the three dams in Bokkos, there is a heavy loss of the livelihood of the people adjourning those dams in that regard.
“If HYPPADEC can look into the issue of providing Agric dams to compensate for the loss of farmlands so that our people can continue their farming activities, we are concerned about transportation, because the dams have locked movement of goods and people, we are looking at if they can provide good tarred roads that will help in taming insecurity because the intervention response time on bad roads are always difficult. Insecurity is a major menace to all the local government areas affected by these dams.
“We are interested in the lighting especially of the hosts and adjourning communities, we have realized that right now, not even a bulb is provided for the areas where these power stations are installed, we are asking that host communities benefit from all interventions, let there be power supply, the mining devastation caused by the impacts of mining activities over the years is as a result of the power supply to those mining sites, Nigerian Electricity Supply Corporation, NESCO itself was there to supply power to the mining activities that started in the early 1920s on the Plateau. After all the ecological damage, HYPPADEC should intervene.”
However, the State Governor, Simon Lalong represented by the Secretary to the State Government, SSG, Professor Danladi Atu stressed, the new approach in Plateau State is aimed at sensitizing stakeholders on its activities based on the Commission’s needs assessment enumeration exercise in the affected communities in the state to ensure the actual environmental challenges being faced by the communities are properly captured for intervention.
His words, “Plateau State has a total of 24 potential hydropower locations, only eight have been developed but the State is strategizing and engaging investors on the development of the remaining sites for increased energy access to the citizens.”
