Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, governorship candidate in Enugu State, Frank Nweke Jnr., has said he would tackle the acute shortage of table water in the state by “un-bundling the water sector.”
The former Minister of Information disclosed this Wednesday night while featuring on Ikengaonline town hall meeting series for governorship candidates in the South-East.
He regretted that Enugu had steady water supply during the colonial era up till the First and Second Republics but the taps suddenly dried up following the failure of successive administrations to sustain the feat.
Nweke Jnr, noted with dismay that Oji River and Ajali water works which were the two sources of water to Enugu metropolis could no longer be maintained by successive administrations in the state.
The APGA governorship hopeful said that under his watch as Enugu Governor, water would be segmented into: sourcing, transmission to reservoirs at strategic locations across the state, and reticulation to people’s homes.
With this measure in place, Nweke said that Water Board would only play a supervisory role to ensure that those engaged in the sub-sector of the water project live up to date.
On the menace of herdsmen in the state, Nweke Jnr. who said he was born and brought up in northern Nigeria promised to engage the herders to stop inflicting harm on farmers and their host communities.
He said he would encourage the establishment of ranches for cattle, declaring that under his watch, herders will no longer be allowed to use their cows to cause harm to farmers or anybody.
“As much as your animals are important to you, the crops are also important to their owners. We will not allow anyone to undermine the other.
“I will do everything to protect the lives and property of my people and not allow anybody under any guise to hurt them at their whims and caprices.
The former Director General, Nigeria Economic Summit Group said he would deploy technology to wire up emerging satellite towns in the state for water-tight security.
He said that if such could work in his local Ozalla community under communal efforts, it could work much more under the state government.
The two-hour virtual town hall meeting was co-hosted by Dr Osmund Agbo, and Dr Chido Onumah, with the audience participating from various parts of the world.
Ikengaonline gubernatorial town hall meeting series is the brainchild of Ikenga Media and Culture Awareness Initiative, IMCAI, publishers of Ikengaonline to engage governorship flag bearer in the South-East to interact with the people and sell their manifestos.
