Reticulation Of Pipe-Borne Water Begins In Umuahia

The Abia Water Board has started the reticulation of water in Umuahia as part of effort to check perennial water scarcity in the state capital and its environs.

The General Manager of the board, Mr Felix Okonkwo,  said on Tuesday in Umuahia that the project would be completed before the end of the first quarter of this year.

He said that the two schemes under the project, the low and high lifts at Umungwa and Umuokpara had been made functional, while the Umuokpara scheme, which was inaugurated about 30 years ago had been revived by the state government.

“The governor never allowed the scheme to go moribund. The key schemes are functional. What we are doing now is to make water available to end users. “I believe that by God’s grace, reticulation will be through by the end of the first quarter,’’ Okonkwo said.

He said that the board had commenced the removal and replacement of old pipes in the city, and that designs for piping network for new estates in Umuahia were underway to enable residents to benefit from the project.

Okonkwo commended Gov. Theodore Orji for resuscitating and maintaining the water schemes, and for approving the board’s proposal for the reticulation project.

He said that water would be supplied from Umuokpara to the two-million litres capacity reservoir at Ugba for Umuahia and its environs, and expressed happiness that Abia was one of the 12 states in the federation selected by the EU for its water reticulation project.

Okonkwo expressed the hope that the project would have great impact on the state, especially the Aba water scheme which, “will gulp billions of naira to rehabilitate’’.

He expressed concern over the construction of illegal structures and buildings on water lines, and said that the board was waiting for appropriate legislation to enforce their demolition.

“Nobody has the right to build on the water channel,’’ he warned, adding that the water rates would be reviewed in line with current economic realities.

Okonkwo described the activities of vandals as the board’s greatest challenge, adding that it recently lost 300mm cable to hoodlums in the area.

He said that strict security measures had been put in place to forestall a recurrence.