BYly; AMOS EBUTE MATHEW, Kaduna
In an effort to tackle water scarcity in Kaduna State, Governor Uba Sani has put machinery in motion to ensure the revival of Kaduna State Water Corporation to provide potable drinking water for the people of the state.
The State Commissioner of Public Works and Infrastructures Architect Ibrahim Hamza Soba made it known during a press conference held in Kaduna.
According to him, not satisfied with the state of water supply facilities in Kaduna the governor in November and December 2023 decided to commit the sum of over N600 million to provide succor to the people in areas of water supply as he embarks on restructuring the water corporation.
Arc. Soba lamented that upon assumption of office in 2023, the administration met a lot of challenges, saying the government is on the top of the game to ensure issues of water scarcity are addressed.
The commissioner also expressed dismay that a lot of investments have gone into the water facility noting that about 200 million dollars has been committed to the sector but the present administration came on board and yet the issue of water supply has not been tackled.
“We realized as at the time we came, the capacity utilization of our facilities was less than eight percent. So it was a very poor performance with all the investment in the sector. Our revenue collection, our billing system, our connection system, the plant, and the whole three to four components of the sector were not working.
“When you go to the plant, that is where we get the water production component, very poor performance, when you get down to the transmission and reservoir, it is also below expectations, very poor performance, and getting down to revenue collection, water lost and everything was just on a high level of percentage.
“So the government had to sit down and see how we can remodel the whole structure and you know, this is not an easy job, it is a challenging situation because a lot of models have been tried before and it never worked. So we had to go back to the drawing board, we had to identify our mistakes in the past to see where we had gone wrong and see why things were this way.”
ARC. Soba disclosed that the state is doing well and he is assuring the public that with the structure and plans we are trying to come up with after an intensive study, we will come back in the next two weeks to say what we have been able to do.
“We have other interventions coming up from the federal Ministry of Water Resources, we are trying to develop an Urban Investment Master plan, and last week, we did the final draft review we also have a low-hanging fruit which is the budget line under the WASH program which is also a World Bank project which we are going to get some funding for.
“The Kaduna State Government is also willing to make some commitment to see that the whole water system, especially the urban water supply system, all challenges come to an end.
“I think that the new management of Kaduna State Water Corporation is doing well.
“I think that the new management of Kaduna State Water Corporation (KADSWAC) is doing well.
“They are trying to undo some damages that were done by the urban renewable which took place some three or four years back where a lot of pipes were vandalized and that is why some areas that used to have water, no longer have access to the supply of water.
“So going forward, we are hopeful that some of these things will be revived and we are going to see some level of progress.
“Already, some areas have started to see some progress after the intervention by the government at the end of 2023.
“I can assure the public that we have almost finished all the strategies and only implementation is left now.” He said
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