Large dams bring poverty in their wake to the thousands who get affected by their construction. The latest is the Kainji Dam, built on Niger river in Nigeria. According to reports from the BBC World Service, at least 100,000 people in western Nigeria were forced to flee their homes after floodwaters overflowed from the dam. More than 60 villages have been completely washed away, said the report. And the death toll is huge.
KainJi, one of Africa's biggest dams, has the largest reservoir in Nigeria. According to the International Rivers Network, the dam has displaced 44,000 people. It was funded by the World Bank in the 1960s for hydropower, irrigation, navigation and flood control purposes. The so-called irrigation and navigation benefits of the dam have not been realised so far. It was reported in 1994, 26 years after the dam was completed, that no barge had ever passed through the dam's massive navigation lock and canal. Hydropower production has fallen short of the planned target as the amount of water in the Niger was overestimated.
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