A Trip to Gurara Waterfall (Raw Data)

THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF GURARA WATERFALLS ON THE PEOPLE OF GURARA

Two famous literatures on Gurara: 
Damilola Oyedele; published 2^nd of Jun 2013, titled “Gurara Falls, Niger State: Untapped,      Unexplored” by THIS DAY LIFE newspaper.
Tunde Busari; oApril 26^th 2015, captioned “GURARA WATERFALLS: RESCUEING NATURES WONDER” on newswatch times under travel and tourism.

Damilola Oyedele in her article pointed out the impact of a developed Gurara waterfall on the economy of Niger state. She said, it will boost the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the state and raise the standard of living of the people of Gurara. This is because infrastructures like standard hotels, zoo, hiking facilities, kayaking facilities, and conference centers given the healthy environment, will attract visitors from neighboring Abuja and tourists from all over the world. 

Major obstacles; the constant change of government in the state and the desire of politicians to develop it for themselves and their families.

Tunde Busari, on the other hand, lamented on the incident involving the mysterious disappearance of a 500-level student of the Federal University of Technology, (FUT) mina.

Gabriel Agunmaro who went for a visit at the falls only to never return. According to Tunde, it gained attention of the public and a search team of divers were prevented from penetrating into the water in search of the student by the management of the fall stating how disappointed the students and the public were at the act. However, Tunde in his article recommended the efforts of the administration in power lead by Governor Babangida Aliyu the Governor of Niger state at the time for his efforts in the construction of the road that leads to the fall and all neighboring communities in the local government, also for caving steps on the steep rock of the falls to allow visitors climb down to the bottom were you have the plunge pool, beautiful rock lumps all over and the water fall itself.

COLLECTED DATA: RAW

On the visit to Gurara water falls at the entrance gate, we met one of the security men who were nice and lead the Geography team to one of the settlements around and he took the team to a village named Bornu. 
There, one of the leaders of the community a man named Mr Abdullahi Sulaman was met after which he gave a brief history of the waterfall.

Mr Abdullahi said that the waterfall in Gurara was discovered by an ancestor name Buba in 1745 but it was unknown to other places till 1901 during colonial period when the Europeans discovered it as a recreational centre. According to Abdullahi the fall is high from May to January and low during February up to April and that they receive visitors from all over the world.

When asked about governments involvement he said that the governments in the past  had shown interest but with a clause of “a develop and own” but with an exception of the government lead by Hon David Mark whom against all odds  made some primary improvements like signs, part ways through the falls and a lot more. 
Hon Babangida Aliyu tarred a road to the site and also announced a proposed construction of; 
- hydropower electricity, 
- a world standard hotel, 
- international polo ground, 
- mountain biking facilities, 
- swimming pool facilities, 
- zoo, 
- shallot, 
- and conference facilities incorporation with some private firms like Shelter Suits, an American film company, ministry of agriculture and water resources a project estimated as 199 billion naira which is just awaiting compensation and ground breaking.

Mr Abdullahi spoke on the question “Of what economic importance is Gurara water falls to the people of Gurara?”

He said “first, Bornu is the head of the five communities in the area and other communities include Buru, Tuchi, Padoha and Lambata Donbito which migrated in search of agricultural land and therefore practice the same tradition and religion and have common festival sometime around early November  ending October. That is the period the believed special fish (muri) which can only be caught by an ancestor of Buba the founder of the falls appears in colonies forming rock like lumps of which when stepped upon disappear and the muri fish as a reputation for giving children to barren women healing sick people and curing disease when eaten although the festival has suffered setbacks from the states common religion (Islam). Therefore the five communities have common economic impacts from the water fall which include:

1. Facilitates their primary occupation during the dry season which is farming.

2. Aids and enables fishing in the region.

3. The primary source of their drinking water.

4. The source of water for bathing.

5. The festival attracts large population of people and tourists globally.

6. The falls attracts visitors from all parts of the world.

7. The fall supplies water to lower Osman dam which in turn supplies water to Abuja the capital city of Nigeria.

8. The fall facilitates navigation and transportation”

Mr Abdullahi lead the team to Lambata Donbito a community in the area were the team met with the community leader Mr Mohamadu for his own account but instead confirmed to Mr Abdullahi’s saying  Mr Abdullahi is from the head community therefore his account covers those of neighbouring communities according to him it’s tradition.  

AKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I thank God almighty for his grace; Mr Yakeens our Geography coordinator for his guardians, Mr Abdullahi for his help in letting us in and providing us with the needed information for this project on Gurara, Mrs Joyce Mac Oriekio for being the best supportive mum in the world and for financing my project, and all the IB Geography students for their cooperation in the data collection process.

BIBLOGRAPHY:

Busari Tunde, Gurara water falls: Rescueing nature’s wonder, Newswatch Times, http://www.mynewswatchtimesng.com/gurara-waterfalls-rescueing-natures-wonder/, 2015, (web).

Oyedele Damilola, Gurara water falls, Niger State, untapped, unexplored, This Day Life, http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/gurara-falls-niger-state-untapped-unexplored/149131/, 2013, (web).