The Enugu State government on Thursday, said it has received $50 million (N25 billion) from the French Development Agency (AFD) to tackle perennial water scarcity in the state.
Loading ...Addressing journalists on the challenges and successes made in the water sector, the chairman of the Board of Directors and Management of the State Water Corporation, Mr Innocent Diyoke, said that the fund was already in place.
Diyoke said “this funding is already in place and is being used to fund the Enugu Water Supply System, including the production centres.
“As we speak, the consultant has already commenced work. He has already worked for one month. He has five months to conclude the workings and design and produce fine drawing and tender documents for rehabilitation and complete revamping of both Ajalli and Oji River pumping stations as well as the transmission lines from Oji to Ajalli to Enugu. This will involve laying 12 kilometers of 700 mm diameter pipelines.
“We’re also extending pipelines in Enugu to areas that are not served as well as complete rehabilitation of distribution system and changing some of the old asbestos cement pipes that are prone to breaking and bursting. This is now currently on board and in the next one year, Enugu will be flooded with water from that project.
“The contractor is already working hard and in the next six months we will be letting the bidding process and selecting the contractor”, Diyoke said.
According to him, since the inception of the current board three months ago, there had been some marginal improvement in water supply in the state following the measures taken by the board.
He said, “These measures have resulted in an improvement in water supply from about 11, 000 cubic meters per day when we came on board three months ago to over 40,000 cubic meters currently per day”.
Diyoke put the water demand of Enugu State to about 150,000 cubic meters per day, assuring that with the current speed of ongoing rehabilitations and revamping, the cooperation would hit 100,000 cubic meters per day in six months if Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi continues to give the board same level of support it is currently enjoying.
“We have driven down the streets in Enugu metropolis to confirm that some of the areas that were not receiving water three months ago, are now receiving water.
“We’re equally doing same rehabilitation measures in Nsukka and as we speak, four boreholes are currently working at Nsukka and fully supplying water to various households. In the next few weeks, six boreholes will be working because we have paid money for the remaining boreholes to be repaired and put to use.
“This whole success story is fully attributable to the swift intervention of Governor Ugwuanyi.
“The government is equally not resting on its oars. In the last two months, contract for the crash programme boreholes was awarded. We have about 12 existing boreholes that have been out of use for quite sometime now. But the government has awarded a contract for it for N600 million for the rehabilitation and revamping of the crash programme boreholes”, he said.
