The Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) has reached an agreement to use its recently built dam to address the water issue being encountered on campus.
The Vice-Chancellor, Prof Kolawole Salako who was accompanied by other principal officers disclosed this on Tuesday during a media facility tour of projects executed by his administration.
The Dam which is situated about 20 kilometres away from the campus will serve domestic, industrial, as well as irrigation purposes during dry season.
Prof.Salako who stated that the construction of the Dam started in 2018, added that two reservoirs and water treatment plants are ready to receive the water channeled from the Dam before they are released for drinking and other uses.
According to him, each reservoir can hold 1.3 million liters of water, thus together, the two could transport 2.6 million liters of water.
He said that the school is expecting funding for water piping and that as soon as "it is approved, the pipes would be procured for seamless water supply to the campus.
Prof. Salako said the institution is open to partnership on the Dam project but such partnership must be with equity.
Talking about the water treatment plant building and the reservoirs, Prof Salako gave kudos to the pioneer VC of FUNAAB, Prof. Olorunnimbe Adedipe who he said constructed them but he said his own administration had to change most of the equipment because they had become obsolete.
He said, “I must commend the pioneer VC of this institution for his foresight in constructing the water treatment plant, and the reservoirs.
“But this water treatment plant and reservoirs had been abandoned for over 15 years and my administration had to renovate this place.
“And since many of the equipment had become obsolete, we had to buy new ones and removed those old ones.
“The Dam projects is almost completed, as you can see the water treatment plant and the reservoirs. What remains is for us to do the piping as soon as we get the fund, which we have applied for.
“This Dam would solve the water problem within the campus.”
He said though the institution has sunk boreholes here and there within the campus, noting that “they are getting too many and cost of maintaining them is getting higher.”
"The Dam would also serve in irrigation farming during dry season.
The Vice Chancellor expressed satisfaction that whatever fund the institution obtained from Federal Government and other sources during his tenure was Judiciously utilised, saying the funds were deployed to execute his 12 - point agenda with special focus on infrastructural developments and procurement of necessary equipment for the university.
The 12 - point agenda, according to him, ranged from Dam and treatment plant, (new)projects, rehabilitation of university buildings, furniture, laboratory equipments, capacity development, generator and electricity supply, vehicles/tractors/utility vehicles, construction/rehabilitation of roads and car parks, entrepreneurship equipments, internet, computer/street light to tertiary education trust fund (Tetfund) supply of books.
No fewer than 226 of such projects subsumed in the 12 - point agenda were executed by his administration, noting that the university on his watch, expended over N1bn on building central laboratory alone which is equipped with cutting edge state of the art facilities
Speaking on accreditation of courses and programmes of the , Prof. Salako said, the National Universities Commission has accredited all the programmes, except Zoology, which has interim accreditation.
The projects also include the university e - Library Extension named after Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, twin 250-seater capacity lecture theatre; Agricultural Farm Laboratory Complex, A 250- seater capacity lecture theatre and College of Engineering Phase II building, named after former President Olusegun Obasanjo, three separate 300 capacity auditoriums and 106 rooms hostel facility.