Gov. Ugwuanyi Holds Town Hall Meeting on Adequate Water Supply
http://www.hrlnews.com/2019/04/gov-ugwuanyi-holds-town-hall-meeting-on.html
Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State
on Thursday held a town hall meeting with relevant stakeholders aimed
at finding lasting solutions to the problems hindering the regular
supply of water to the homes and establishments in the state.
The meeting, which was summoned at the
instance of the governor, in keeping with his administration’s renewed
vigor to enhance the wellbeing of the people of the state through the
sustenance of peace and good governance, extracted firm commitment from
the players in the industry on better ways to improve water supply in
the state.
Addressing the participants at the
meeting, held at Ajali Water Scheme, Ezeagu Local Government Area, Gov.
Ugwuanyi stated that “the water sector in the state has over the years
encountered and is still being hampered by a number of factors
especially, the fragile conditions of some of the existing water
projects and installations as well as daunting environmental and human
factors”, in spite of several attempts his administration had made to
revamp the sector.
He added that his administration
recently invested in the upgrade of existing infrastructure for enhanced
water production and distribution across the state, stressing that the
state government was desirous of finding immediate stop-gap solutions to
the challenges the sector is facing so that residents can enjoy
adequate water supply.
Gov. Ugwuanyi disclosed that the
stop-gap solutions will provide water service to the state until the
$50m loan the state government signed up with French Development Agency
(AFD) for 3rd National Urban Water Sector Reform Project for total
transformation of the state’s water infrastructure is accessed.
The governor, who further disclosed that
his administration was currently on the threshold of the first
draw-down of the loan for an end-to-end transformation of the water
infrastructure to begin, pointed out that the project which had “a long
gestation period” will involve water production, transmission,
distribution, metering, revenue collection and revenue recycling.
“We have, therefore, thought it wise to
invite all of you – as major stakeholders in the water sector – to
brainstorm and deliberate on how we can start the journey towards
confronting the challenges in the sector successfully and meet the
ever-growing water needs of Ndi Enugu while waiting for the benefits of
the AFD-funded Urban Water Sector Reform Project to come on stream”, the
governor explained.
In their contributions, the
participants, including experienced water engineers, contractors, and
staff and management of Enugu State Water Corporation, identified
insufficient power supply as one of the major challenges hindering
production and adequate distribution of water to residents and offered
valued advice on how to address the problems.
On their part, the management of the
Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC), while describing Gov.
Ugwuanyi as one of their valued customers, promised to improve power
supply to both Ajali and Oji River Water Schemes and also give technical
support to the Corporation for the people of Enugu State to enjoy
adequate water supply.