…Commissions ultra-modern water project
BY GODWIN OBI
Enugu State governor, Chief Peter Mbah, has commissioned a 70 million litres per day landmark water scheme at 9th Mile, Enugu.
This, coupled with the Oji River Water Scheme revamped by the administration raises the state water production capacity to 120 million litres per day.
The projects, which brought to an end a scourge of water scarcity, which had bedevilled the state’s capital for over 20 years, is part of the fulfilment of the governor’s pledge to provide water for Enugu residents in his first 180 days in office.
Powered by a gigantic 4.4 megawatts dedicated power supply, the water facility is expected to serve the entire Enugu metropolis and other areas.
Speaking during the commissioning yesterday, Mbah, who warned against any form of vandalism of the installed water infrastructure, said that his government would keep every of his campaign promises, as they were social contracts he entered with them.
“When we communicated this promise, it triggered disbelief in most quarters and that is perhaps understandable. After all, Ndi Enugu have before now seen countless successive but unsuccessful attempts to address this problem.
“Happily for us all, here we are 180 days from that promise, commissioning this new ultra-modern water scheme with a capacity to deliver to businesses and families in Enugu 70 million litres of potable water daily and this is but the first phase.
“In a few weeks, we will also be commissioning new pumps in Oji Water Scheme to enable us to deliver another 50 million litres of water every day. This will give us a total daily delivery of 120 million litres in Enugu, about twice the daily demand of Enugu urban.
Mbah further said that the state government would continue to ensure the expansion of pipe networks across both Enugu metropolis and rural areas to ensure that every resident of the state has access to drinking water.
“We have delivered enough water for Enugu metropolis, and that is indeed praiseworthy. However, it is certainly not yet time to shout uhuru.
“That is because the existing water pipe network does not service a number of major residential areas which have developed since the last major pipe laying projects in Enugu. We will need to continue the effort to extend pipe borne water to them.
“In addition, the towns outside Enugu also have varied degrees of water problems. Now that we can see the end of the water issues around Enugu urban, we must now refocus to address towns like Nsukka, Oji, Udi etc. Finally, but certainly not least importantly, we still have our rural areas, where clean water availability is still not assured.
“We must now begin to examine and deploy creative location specific water supply solutions across all the local government areas. This will enable us to achieve the minimum levels of water sufficiency, sanitation and hygiene which will position us to meet the Sustainable Development Goals at the appointed time,” he said
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Pythrocin distributed by Pinnacle Health Pharmaceuticals Ltd
2023-11-25
