Anambra Commissioner for Agriculture Hails ATASP-1 Irrigation Project as Game Changer

By Olisemeka Obeche
Anambra State Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr. Forster Ihejiofor has hailed the ongoing efforts to rehabilitate the moribund Lower Anambra Irrigation Project (LAIP) under the Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Program Phase One (ATASP-1) as a game-changer in the quest to ensure sustainability in food production and self-sufficiency in the country.

Dr. Ihejiofor made the remarks on Wednesday during inspection tour of the LAIP pumping station at Ifite-Ogwari and later canal lining project sites at Omor, all in Ayamelum Local government area of Anambra state.
The commissioner who was accompanied by the Zonal Program Coordinator, ATASP-1 Adani-Omor Zone, Dr. Romanus Egba and the Zonal Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Dr. Johnpaul Onyekineso, commended the federal government for the decision to revamp the moribund irrigation system, stressing that when completed and operational, will provide farmers the opportunity to crop twice yearly with quantum increase in food productivity.

He expressed the readiness of the state government under the leadership of Prof. Chukwuma Soludo to key into the project that will improve the lives of Ndi Anambra and ensure its sustainability, adding that the state and indeed south east as well as the entire nation would benefit immensely from the project. “This is a massive project that will have greater impacts when completed”, he said.

Earlier, Engr. Moses Adelabu, the Site Manager, Raycon Nigeria Ltd, the project contractor, disclosed that work was temporarily suspended due to the impending flooding crisis to avoid causing irreparable damages to the electrical components of the pumping machines. Adelabu, further disclosed that, safe for the flood menace, the installation of the pumping machine would have been complete within weeks. He further disclosed that various control monitors would be replaced to enable the pumping station operate at optimal level.
Dr. Egba, on his own, also informed the commissioner that the zonal management team had held a meeting with the contractor with a view of finding immediate and long-term solution to the flood menace at the site. He stressed that flooding of the pumping machine area could spell doom for the project and that efforts were being made to protect the facility from water encroachment.

The Adani-Omor Zonal ATASP-1 boss, also disclosed that apart from the flooding issue, the program was still worried that the Anambra state government had not been able to provide the 5,000KVA transformer that it pledged to make available to power the pumping machine. He stressed that without the power supply, it would be difficult to sustain the water supply to the Lower Anambra Irrigation Project (LAIP).
Egba, disclosed that the original plan was to use gravitational force for supply water to the irrigation system but the state government expressed their preference for rehabilitation of the moribund pumping station, pledging to provide a transformer. “It was on the strength of that promise that we decided to rehabilitate the pumping station under ATASP-1, and as you can see, the installation is nearing completion but the transformer is not yet provided. If that did not happen any time soon, it would be difficult to reap the long term gains of this project”, Egba told participants at a recent Steering Committee meeting held in Enugu.