Ben Ezechime, Enugu
Governor. Peter Mbah of Enugu State has inaugurated a 120 million litres of water per day scheme for Enugu residents, which was part of his electioneering campaign promises to the people.
Inaugurating 24/7 9th-Mile Corner Ultra-Modern Water Scheme on Saturday in Enugu, Mbah said that the gigantic water scheme and its reticulation put an end to the 20-year water scarcity in Enugu metropolis.
Ikengaonline reports that following the acute water scarcity in Enugu, Mbah during his electioneering campaign promised to deliver water within 180 days in office to Enugu people to end water challenge in the state.
According to him, the state now has capacity to deliver enough water to Enugu metropolis and in few weeks new pumps in Oji Water Scheme will commence to enable them deliver another 50 million litres of water daily.
“Today in Enugu, our daily consumption volume of water is less than 100 million litres and those connected to our pipeline network consume only 70 million litres per day.
“And by the time we have all the new layout connected to our pipeline network, our consumption volume will be 100 million litres of water daily.
“As it stand now, we can comfortably deliver 120 million litres daily without stopping on the first phase,” Mbah said.
He added that they would increase the production to 200 million litres per day in few months.
He noted that the state had embarked on second phase of increasing capacity of 9th mile water scheme from 70 million to additional 80 million bringing the production capacity to 150 million litres daily.
The governor said the government had built 96 water galleries across Enugu metropolis to make water supply accessible and affordable to Enugu people in their homes and public areas.
Mbah said government embarked on the project considering the suffering of Enugu people in getting water.
“We identified provision of water as one of our first targets in the drive to execute our mandate and social contract with citizens of Enugu.
“When we communicated this promise, it triggered disbelief in most quarters and that is perhaps understandable. After all, Enugu people have seen before now countless successive but unsuccessful attempts to address this problem.
“Today, families on the grid will have access to water in their homes, while those still outside the grid for the time being, can go to the water galleries nearest to them to fetch clean water.
“For our brothers and sisters who have been engaged in the business of operating water tankers for the water supply business, it will be come necessary to remodel your businesses in this new era by supplying water to construction sites,” he said.
The governor, however, urged the residents to report anyone they see attempting to steal or vandalise water assets, warning that any persons caught vandalising or stealing any components of the system would face the wrath of the law.
“We have put in place sufficient buffer to ensure we have constant electricity and the water will be far less expensive than what you are spending today on water tanker supply, but there is no way the water will be free.
“Finally, while the water is indeed plentiful right now, we must resist the urge to become wasteful in its use,” he appealed.
On how the project was funded, Mbah said the state had Water Fund from French Development Bank but did not relying on it for the project but built the water scheme through Internally Generated Revenue.
Speaking on sustainability and maintenance, the governor said the government was embarking on institutional building through training of its workforce capacity to sustain the project.
In a remark, the state Commissioner for Water Resources, Mr Felix Nnamani, while expressing happiness, thanked Mbah for fulfilling his campaign promises to Enugu people and keeping his word for 180 days.
He urged everyone to support the Mbah government to deliver more dividends of democracy to the people of the state.
