Water Provision To Gulp N14bn For PH/Obio/Akpor

Authorities in the Rivers State Ministry of Water and National Resources say about N14 billion is needed for the effective provision of water for residents of Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor Local Government Areas.

The figures were made public by the Commissioner for Water and Natural Resources, Ms. Patricia Hart, in a special report she made during the visit of Minister of Water Resources, Chief Obadiah Audo to the state on Monday.

Ms. Hart said the money would cover repair works, acquisition of modern facilities and other technical requirements needed to resuscitate the moribund State Water Board.

Currently, she said the state government has stepped up water provision, but noted that the current production was still below required consumption level following swelling population and poor facilities.

According to her, Port Harcourt and its environs require about 200 million litres of water per day but that only about 160 million in being provided daily.

She lamented that the effort of government to improve water provision is being stifled by poor water infrastructure and technical problems that stems from obsolete facilities.

Ms. Hart revealed that the local areas are worse hit as a lot of rural people still resort to streams, rivers, hand wells and rain harvesting to source for water.

She noted that a recent survey conducted by officials of the ministry revealed that about 553 federal water projects are in the rural areas, lamenting that the quality of water in the state was still far from the standards prescribed by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Her words: “Because of high oil exploration activities, our water sources are highly acidic and has high presence of lead.”

She maintained that in order to improve the situation, the ministry has embarked on a base line survey, Geographical Information System (GIS) study of the 21 remaining local government areas outside Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor.

The Water and Natural Resource Commissioner therefore tasked the federal government to revive some of its abandoned water projects like the one at Otamiri since the state is blessed with lots of water resources.

The commissioner, who later conducted the Minister round the Rumuola Water Works in Port Harcourt, assured that the state is evolving new water regulation policies for commercial needs.