Evaluation of Environmental Effect of Shiroro Hydropower Dam on the Downstream Communities of Shiroro Local Government Area, Niger State, Nigeria

Anzaku M Iliyasu ,Onoja F Idoko ,Mohammed Alkali ,Buba Yenhor Alfred ,Sa’adu Sabitu Da’u

doi:10.7176/jees/9-3-11

Abstract

This study evaluates the environmental effect of Shiroro hydropower dam on the downstream communities. The main objective of this study is to investigate the environmental effects of Shiroro hydropower dam on the downstream communities. A suitable conceptual framework was formulated and obtained data on the environmental impacts of dam on downstream communities, followed by a comprehensive literature review for viable information on the study. Three communities were used as case studies and quantitative method was used as an appropriate research paradigm such as structured questionnaire survey (with predominantly quantitative questions) and relevant data was obtained from the study area. Subsequently the data was analysed using descriptive, factor analysis and Kruskal-Wallis test as well construct reliability and validity analysis. From a broad range of environmental impacts, core environmental impacts were determined. The core impacts include changes in riparian vegetation, changes in river water quality, changes to channel shape and changes in floodplains among others. Similarly, control techniques were identified to lessen the effect of the impact and the result revealed that watershed management, water pollution control, management of water releases, fishing regulation, fish hatcheries and fish passage facilities were the core control techniques. The result of Kruskal-Wallis test revealed that majority of the environmental impacts affecting the communities under study is significantly and statistically different while the Cronbach alpha for internal consistencies of the constructs of the questionnaire was 0.745, hence high enough for generalising the result. Keywords: Environment, Effects, Hydroelectric, Dam, Downstream DOI : 10.7176/JEES/9-3-11 Publication date :March 31 st 2019

Highlights

Rivers have played a key role in shaping the earth’s physical and ecological landscapes through their distinctive hydrologic characteristics, as well as shaping cultural landscapes by providing food, water, and other ecosystem services
The principal components analysis (PCA) was run for each category of impacts to identify the most and the least significant impacts of the dam on the downstream communities based on the responses gotten from respondents
4.0 CONCLUSION Dams and the environment interrelate with a high degree of complexity

Summary

Introduction

Rivers have played a key role in shaping the earth’s physical and ecological landscapes through their distinctive hydrologic characteristics, as well as shaping cultural landscapes by providing food, water, and other ecosystem services. As early as 6500 BC, the Sumerians constructed dams across the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to provide flood control and irrigation for crops (Mc Cully, 2001). Dams; large and small, are planned, constructed and operated to meet human needs in the generation of energy, irrigated agricultural production, flood control, supply of drinking water, and various other purposes (WCD, 2000a). According to McCartney et al, (2001), dams built to change natural flow systems, are one of the most major human interventions in the hydrological cycle. It became a prominent instrument for economic development in the past century. Two large dams were built per day for half a century (WCD, 2000) and today, the number of large dams exceeds 50,000 (Berga et al, 2006)

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