The Goronyo Dam impounds the Rima River in

Goronyo Goronyo is a Local Government Area in Sokoto State, Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the town of Goronyo, on the Sokoto River. It has an area of 1,704 km and a population of 182,296 at the 2006 census. The postal code A postal code (al ...

local government area of

Sokoto State Sokoto ( Hausa: ; Fula: , ''Leydi Sokoto'') is one of the 36 states of Nigeria, located in the extreme northwest of the country. It is bounded by Republic of the Niger to the north and west for 363 km (226 miles), and the states of Zamf ...

in the northern

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

. It was completed in 1984 and commissioned in 1992. The dam is a sand-fill structure with a height of 21 m and a total length of 12.5 km. It has a storage capacity of 976 million cubic meters. The dam will be important in controlling floods and releasing water in the dry season for the planned Zauro polder project downstream in

Kebbi State Kebbi State (; Fulfulde: Leydi Kebbi 𞤤𞤫𞤴𞤣𞤭 𞤳𞤫𞤦𞥆𞤭) is a state in northwestern Nigeria, bordered to the east and north by the states of Sokoto and Zamfara, and to the south by Niger State while its western border ...

. In August 2009, Governor Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko urged the Federal Government to hasten completion of the irrigation project. The Minority Leader of the Sokoto State House of Assembly, Alhaji Bello Goronyo, said that N4 billion was needed to complete canalisation, but only about N600 million was provided in the 2009 budget. In late August 2010, rainstorms caused the dam to fill to dangerous levels. In an attempt to reduce the risk of failure, the gates were opened on 1 September 2010, causing major flooding in the downstream village of Kagara. On 8 September, the spillway from the dam completely failed, causing much more widespread flooding. The storm that caused the flooding may be part of a climate change pattern, with rising temperatures and more intense rainfall in the rainy season.

References

{{Dams in Nigeria Dams in Nigeria Sokoto State Dams completed in 1984 20th-century architecture in Nigeria