Brief History

Estate Department was created as far back as 1960, the Department therefore is as old as the University. The Department was headed by a Director of Works who was assisted by a Deputy Estate Manager. For a long period of time, the Department has gone through numerous changes. From inception, the Department was made up of two units namely:

• Physical Planning unit
• Maintenance and Services unit

Between the years of 1991-2000, Estate Department was headed by two consecutive Directors under maintenance and services and then Physical Planning department. Maintenance and services department was headed by a Director of works assisted by two Deputy Directors. While Physical Planning Department was headed by a Director and a Deputy Director. From year 2001-2006, Estate Department was again merged as only one Department with a Director of works as the Head of the Department. In the year 2006 Management Consultants were appointed to manage and spear head the re-structuring of the Department for a period of 12 months.

The Consultants having concluded their contract and submitted a final report covering July 2006- May, 2007 saw the recruitment of new staff including the Director who was recommended and appointed to steer the reign of leadership with both Physical Planning and Municipal services units under his supervision with specific recommendation. The units are headed by Chief Engineer Municipal Services (CEMS) and Chief Physical Planning and Development Officer (CPPDO) respectively.

The department has nine sections as follows:

• Projects
• Academic Building Maintenance.
• Housing Building Maintenance.
• Kongo Campus Maintenance.
• Roads.
• Store and Supply.
• Water Works.
• Bulk-Metering.
• Administration.
• Transport

The Municipal Services unit comprises of Housing, Academics, Roads, Water Works and Bulk metering sub-units, while the Physical Planning unit consisted of the Campus Planning, Survey, Capital Projects, Master Plan Implementation and Space allocation sub-units.

OBJECTIVES

The main purpose of Establishing Estate Department is to provide in House Engineering and Technical Services to all infrastructures within the University Community. It is also to provide Physical Planning and Development within the University’s campuses.

FUNCTIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT

(a) To maintain all University Infrastructures such as Academic Buildings, Admin, other Service Buildings, Staff Houses and Students Hostels.

(b) Provide essential Services such as Water and Power (Electricity) supply.

(c) To construct and maintain access roads within the Campuses

(d) Design and supervise capital Projects.

(e) To update University Master Plan and its Implementation.

(f) It Provides Transport Services for the University’s activities such as academic field trips and extra curricular activities.

(g) Estate Department is the custodian of the University’s lands and landed properties.

LEVEL OF FUNDING AND MAN-POWER

Estate Department is funded by the University through its internally generated revenue (I.G.R) to settle the University's utility bills and maintain the facilities/utilities and services rendered. Other sources are Federal Government Capital appropriations, Infrastructural intervention projects by the University's ALUMNI Association and other donors. Examples include: State Government.

1. The Federal Ministry of water resources – phase II water supply project.
2. The N70 Million naira 33/111kv power sub – station injection taking from the National grid to support power supply at the Main Campus.

The Department currently has one hundred and ninety six (196) staff, of which sixty three (63) are Senior and one hundred and thirty three (133) Junior Staff. This is against the required staff capacity of three hundred (300) caused by the inability to replace retired staff as when due.

ACTIVITIES

Water Works
Water works section is responsible for the treatment, storage and distribution of portable water to the University’s Main Campus, both residential and academic areas including students’ hostels.

Bulk Metering

The Bulk-metering section is responsible for the supply and regulation of power supply to the university community. The section currently maintain 35 Substations and 14 Standby generators of various ratings including those at the water works and booster station serving as alternative power supply.

Roads Unit

The Roads Unit of Estate Department is responsible for the construction as well as Maintenance of Roads, Culverts, Drainages, parking Spaces, Sign Boards, Road Signs and all roads elements within the University's campuses.

Workshop Section

The Department has the following workshops: Masonry, Carpentry, Refrigeration and Air conditioning, Welding, Painting and Decoration, as well as Drawing office. The former are under Municipal Services unit, while the later is under Physical Planning unit.

Transport

The transport section is managed by a Head and has about sixteen vehicles. One (1) 51seater bus, two (2) 61seater buses and three (3) 65seater Buses. There are also 2 Toyota Hilux double cabin and 3 single cabin pickup vans, 4 Mercedes Benz water tankers, 2 tractor and a 406 Peugeot salon car.

Admin Unit

The admin section is headed by the Director as chief executive assisted by an admin secretary with admin staff of various cadres.

Opportunities

There is qualitative man-power in the department with array of professionals’ services such as the Engineers, Architects, Quantity Surveyors, Technical and Craftsmen.

There are many opportunities for the staff of the Department who are exposed to further internal/external training such as workshops and seminars by trained staff and Consultants.

Assessment of Department

Despite obstacles faced by the Department over the years, there has been a tremendous achievement which brought about relative performance in the areas of service delivery under the present leadership.

At least 85% of various categories of requests for repairs and Maintenance in both academic and housing areas forwarded to the Department have been promptly attended to, with most cases executed base on their nature.

Philosophy/Vision

We look towards creating an excellent and efficient professional services delivery to the University community and the nation at large.

ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES

The department has faced a lot of environmental challenges for a long period of time which has affected mostly the water reservoir and landscape of the University among others. These include:

i. Over grazing
The Areas around the Dam are littered with several herds of cattle (over 20herds can be sited at any point in time). Most of these herds are migratory. Coming from other areas of Zaria region. As a result of over grazing there is hardly any grass or shrub left. Goats and sheeps are reared virtually in all the settlements. These animals have laid bare the land, contributing to the ecological devastation of the catchments.

ii. Farming
Improper farming technique has led to infertility of the land. Subsequently, fertilizers are much used leading to chemical pollution of the University's water reservoir. Irrigation farming is extensively practiced, thus reducing the amount of water going to the water reservoir from the upstream.

iii. Erosion and gullies
Erosion and other forms of desertification activities have exposed about 11.0Km² of the Kubanni river catchment areas to bareness and has contributed to significant level of silting of the tributaries and Dam.
Goats and cattle movement and grazing pressure, as well as wrong farming technique is responsible for the erosions and gullies.

iv. Deforestation
Extensive deforestation is going on within the catchments of the dam, in the form of felling of trees for use as firewood, peeling of barks of tress for medicinal purposes and bush burning in the dry season.

v. Pollution
Sewage pollution of the Dam is mainly from Samaru through Ganga-Uku Stream. There is a very poor drainage system in Samaru village. Domestic solid wastes and refuse dumps along drainages and lack of proper pit latrines contributed to the pollution in Ganga Uku streams running to the University Dam. Unauthorized fishing activities cause a lot of challenges in water treatment by the A.B.U. water works. Ganga-Uku valley is being used as a center where sewage is deposited and open defecation by residents and animals (particularly pigs). More over, Ganga-Uku settlement has no sanitary facility and the valley is also used as refuse dumps. All these pollutants drains to the Dam. Waste disposal within the University campus (behind Ramat Student Hostel) also contributes to pollution of the dam. Laundry along the streams is another source of pollution. Soaps and other detergents used in laundry enhance eutrophication process and gradual ageing of the reservoir through prolific algae growth and aquatic macrophytes, leading to silting of the lake.

v. Decreasing storage of water reservoir
The active storage of the water in the Dam has continued to decrease due to decrease rainfall (volume and frequency), increases duration of dry season, resulting in increased water evaporation in the reservoir, increased silting of the feeding streams/tributaries of the dam, through animal and human activities and increased water demand following increased human and animal population in the catchments areas with additional demand from adjoining communities.

vi. Sand quarrying
Sand quarrying especially unauthorized sand and laterite extraction at the out skirts behind the built area of the main campus, has alarmingly subjected a part of the University land to massive erosion destroying the beautiful terrain.

COMMUNITY SERVICE

Estate Department of the University provides neighboring communities with essential services such as access to portable drinking water. The University provides spaces on campus for commercial activities such as shopping kiosks and stalls. The community market on campus is mostly run by businessmen and traders from neighboring communities. Transportation is provided on request to neighboring communities for social events and community activities. Also on request, the Department constructs and maintains buildings, roads, culverts, bridges, and road signs. Examples of community services executed are:


 Development of road median division on the Zaria – Funtua highway.

 The renovation of the Samaru police office behind Estate Department.

 Donation of a generator to Bomo community.

 Donation of two hectares of land to Maigamo and Tudun-sarki villages, for construction of 2 schools.

 Donation of tree seedlings and manure fertilizer to neighboring communities.

 Provide employment opportunities to the neighbouring communities

Mission

To advance the frontiers of professional practices through training and retraining; to establish technical services by integrating, developing and promoting of high level human power in various field of technical services; to coordinate project activities in line with the Federal Government Due Process Act.

Staff List