Grappling With Challenges Of Effective Water Supply

Too much water everywhere, none to drink is a popular aphorism associated with Rivers State because of its strategic natural disposition as a state bordered by the Atlantic. It is a notion critics have also used to underscore the increasing challenges and difficulties in the provision and effective distribution of water in Port Harcourt and its environs. But   this  fact  has equally remained a major concern.

Most rural communities in the state that depend on local streams and natural vegetations as a major source of water supply are now stripped of their natural water sources because of increasing pollution occasioned by the activities of oil companies. Experts state that most of the common diseases afflicting the people are water- borne, arising from the contamination of the natural environment.

Essential as water is to the daily living of the people, analysts pick holes in the quest for its utility in the state, describing it as lacking in articulation and implementation. Interestingly, successive governments in Rivers State had always made efforts at addressing the challenges of water supply in the state through the Ministry of Water Resources and related agencies, such as the Rivers State Water Board.          But analysts, insight into the operations of the Rivers Water sector indicates that such efforts over the years, are yet to transform into a sustainable result as most residents of Port Harcourt depend on water vendors as a major source of water supply, without bordering about hygienic condition of the water, or the source of the vendors’ supply.             Recently, the Rivers State House of Assembly Committee on Water Resources, led by its Chairman, Hon Martins Amaewhule, embarked on a facility visit at the Rivers State Water Board, an agency saddled with the responsibility of providing water for the city of Port Harcourt and its environs.

The committee, during the visit, not only observed a palpable decay in existing infrastructure at the board but also noted a low rate of public awareness over the activities of the board.

Addressing the technical team of the Ministry of Water Resources and the Water Board, led by the Hon Commissioner for Water Resources, Ms Patricia Simon-Hart, the committee called for the resuscitation of facilities at the board to boost operations in response to its fundamental obligations. The committee also tasked the ministry  implementation of policies on water distribution network in the new design on urban renewal  in Port Harcourt, which covers the new extension of the city, called the ‘Greater Port Harcourt’.

Speaking on the issue, the Rivers State Commissioner for Water Resources, Ms Simon-Hart reassured government commitment to the provision of adequate water in the state.

The commissioner, however, acknowledged that the ministry and the board were facing some challenges that obstruct effective service delivery, and implementation of project design on water supply and distribution in the state.

The commissioner said the many road construction projects being embarked upon in the city cause damages to the existing pipes and disconnect people from using available water.

Apart from Port Harcourt, the commissioner said, the Rivers State Government has also embarked on a rural water scheme.

Some of the rural water projects are already in use at Deken, Yeghe and Terabor in Gokana Local Government where water pumping stations are built by the Rivers State Government.

The commissioner said government plans to extend the project to other local government areas of the state. In spite of the challenges, the commissioner expressed strong convictions over the possibilities of a longer-term improvement and sustainability in the water sector.

In her views, “this prospect can be engendered through private sector participation to augment the capital intensive nature of water generation and distribution”.

The Rivers State Water Board, saddled with the primary duties of generating and distributing water in Port Harcourt and its metropolis is evidently laced with grave challenges.

Its statutory responsibilities spelt out in the edit that established it in 1989, appears to have been punctured by the interplay of politics which whittles down its independence and relevance.

The edict stipulates direct funding and a sitting board, but such nexus of operation are lacking in the activities of the board. Apart from coping with the interplay of politics and bureaucratic bottlenecks, the board also faces teething challenges, such as lack of power supply and rehabilitation and full utilisation of existing infrastructure.

According to the acting General Manager of the Rivers State Water Board, Martins Mmeo “a major problem of the board is the high cost of running the equipment with diesel to power the pumping stations”. He said the board needed assistance in power generation for the running of equipment at minimal cost. Contrary to the assumption that the board was moribund, the acting general manager said the board was pumping water, but some areas, like Elekahia and others in the city cannot access it because the underground pipes have been damaged.

Drawing from a World Bank interventionist scheme on water supply, which Rivers State was a beneficiary, the general manager said; “the board has facilities worth N4.5 billion on ground but cannot be effectively put to use because of lack of regular maintenance and irregular power supply”.

He said most of the facilities acquired through the World Bank scheme for the rehabilitation of existing infrastructures, such as boreholes, water pipes surface pipes and overhead tanks, were in good condition and can be made to work.

On the damages done to existing water pipes, the general manager, who is a member of the technical committee on Greater Port Harcourt, called for the provision of emergency service lane in every road project, to accommodate the right of passage of water pipes, electricity poles, and telephone, ambulances and fire-fighting trucks.

This, he said, would sustain the drive for effective water supply and service delivery in the state. “There is need for a new policy for water to generate its own revenue in the state, water is paid for all over the world. If facilities are upgraded and in effective use, Port Harcourt, and indeed, Rivers State will be better off”, he said.

The water sector, recently received a boost in the 2012 budget of the Rivers State Government. The allocation of a whopping N10.9 billion to the water sector offers a lifeline to the supervising Ministry of Water Resources and the Water Board in response to their statutory obligations.

To forestall the experience of the past, critics have called for a discreet utilisation of the budgeting provision to address the problems of water supply, through stakeholders interface and oversight function by the relevance committees in the legislature.

In line with the new Rivers policy on water supply, the Special Adviser to the Rivers State Governor on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Desire Bobmanuel, has said that Health and water supply will top the MDGs strategic priorities in Rivers State in 2012. Speaking during an inspection of the ongoing construction of new hostel block at the state School of Nursing, the special adviser corroborated the views of experts that “most diseases complained about in Rivers State are water borne”.

He said the MDGs office in Rivers State has already commenced an interface scheme on water supply, and assured that the scheme will assist in addressing the problem of water supply in the state.

The scheme, according to him, is done in partnership with the Water Board, and the acting General Manager of the Board, Martins Mmeo is the head of the team overseeing the MDGs’ water projects in Kalaibiama, Degema, Tombia, Abua and Andoni.

Recently, the Greater Port Harcourt Development Authority also signed an agreement with a foreign firm, Paterson Candy International on the construction of a temporary water project in the phase I of the new city at the cost of N709 million. The project, according to the Administrator of Greater Port Harcourt Development Authority, Dame Aleruchi Cookey-Gam, is to check indiscriminate sinking of boreholes in the new city extension as well as provide water for at least 5 years for the institutions located in the area.

The extent to which these policies will go to address the problems of water supply in the state, however, depends on time, determination and will and projection.

Taneh Beemene