ABSTRACT
This thesis assesses the potential environmental as well as the social impacts that are associated with the conversion of Kiri dam to a hydro-electric power dam. As case studies, five villages namely; Mabonde, Gelode, WuroJauro, Kiri and New Talum in the Guyuk District of the Adamawa State region respectively, were selected for questionnaire survey and scheduled focus group discussion. A total of 150 questionnaires were administered in the villages and 8 persons from each village were involved in the scheduled focus group discussions. Consultations were made to the institutional stakeholders of the project planning including GOBADEC, UBRBDA, State Ministry of Environment Yola, and State Ministry of Works Yola to ascertain their understanding of the project impacts on the environment. Site visit was also undertaken to ascertain the formation and modification of the of the proposed project environment since the inception of the dam. Geographic Information Systems and remote sensing was applied to study the changes in land-use and vegetation cover since the impoundment of the river in 1982 and it was found that 27.77 km2 of land was lost to the lake reservoir, 20.96 km2 of land was lost to flood plains and 6.82 km2 of land lost to agriculture/settlement, totalling 55.55 km2 of land lost in the last two decades. The result of the study has revealed that the potential adverse impacts of the proposed project such as flooding, pollution and threat to public health to mention a few, are mostly limited to the construction stage of the project. However, numerous benefits such as boost to economic growth, skill transfer to locals and increase in local economic activities are to be enjoyed during both the construction and operational stages of the hydropower project. To avert the potential adverse environmental and social problems in the area, the study recommends equal partnership between the project owners, responsible authority (UBRBDA) with the local people to combat environmental degradation. Furthermore, the use of computer based technologies like Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System (GIS) should be implemented to play a major role in assisting and combating the problems within the lake and dam catchment areas.