Estimation of Sediment Concentration of River Dagga, Chanchaga Basin, Niger State, Nigeria

Sedimentation is a concern to water resources project globally; water flows along with certain degree of sediment naturally, and when the natural flow regime of a river is altered by a dam, the reservoir stores both water and sediment which settles in the reservoir and reduces the storage capacity. Reduction in storage capacity of a reservoir beyond a limit hampers the purpose for which it was designed. River Dagga is proposed to be dammed for water supply purpose, but there is no consistent monitoring of sediment inflow into the rivers in Nigeria. This research aims to study the suspended sediment-laden water carried by River Dagga, Niger State Nigeria. Though most methods of estimating the rates of sedimentation are quite cumbersome, time-consuming and expensive but the availability of some data, (the sediment and flow rating curves) ease these difficulties. In this study, the direct method of sediment sampling data approach has been used to estimate the rate of sediments carried by river Dagga. The result shows that River Dagga sediment inflow is low as water flows only during the raining season, the bed material soil transported along the river bed is classified. The suspended sediment estimates are expected to increase if the upstream of the catchment area is subjected to further urbanization, farming, and animal grazing activities.