Bauchi ACReSAL establishes 100 water schemes to mitigate farmers/Herders violent clashes 

Bauchi State Programme Implementation Office of the World Bank funded Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) Project is establishing 100 water schemes across the State to ease search for water by herders.

The disclosure was made by the Project Coordinator, Dr Ibrahim Kabir, while speaking to Journalists on the sidelines of the 2-day workshop on Inclusive Land Management system held in Bauchi.

According to him, “For the ACReSAL project, we are all aware that in Bauchi state, we are now establishing what we call integrated water supply scheme across cattle routes. We are doing that because we are informed that there are some communities, there are some herders  that usually move for a kilometer or more for them to get water.”

“And at the cause of that movement, now they pass through the farmlands where their animals are going to destroy the farmlands and affect the crops and that’s the essence of the clashes,” he added.

Ibrahim Kabir disclosed that, “So by establishing these 100 water schemes in Bauchi State, we believe that, that factor, particularly for Search of water that makes them to pass through the farmlands, the costs will be reduced.”

The ACReSAL PC further stated that, “Secondly now, we are partnering with L-PRES currently, I want to tell you, at the national level. In fact, we were in Togo and of course also in Senegal where we discussed extensively about how are we going to also support in the provision of grazing lands for the herders without affecting the agricultural activities of the farmers.”

According to him,”I want to tell you, this instrument that we are targeting to get the action plan for the integrated landscape management system is one out of so many documents and the policies that we are going to bring in order to reduce the farmers and herders clashes across the three states.”

He added that,”So, if I want to make it as simple, it is a step forward as far as we are concerned. One good thing about all these projects, we still have lifespan. ACReSAL has three more years, L-PRES of course has also three years left. But the Soil Values that just started, is going to spend 10 years, so they have additional Nine years.”

According to him,”So, when we start building the system, we believe that before the end of Soil Values, in fact before the end of ACReSAL we have something, before the end of Soil Values, we have something on ground.”

He concluded that, “And we are very hopeful and optimistic that at the end of the soil values, all these problems that we identified will be resolved.”