‘PH Water Project: 200 May Lose Homes’

The Port Harcourt Water Supply and Sanitation project may likely displace over 200 persons in the two local of areas of Port Harcourt City and Obio/Akpor, in the densely populated Rivers State capital.
The Managing Director, Port Harcourt Water Corporation, Mr Kenneth Anga, gave this indication during the official launch of the Port Harcourt Urban Water Sector Reform and Port Harcourt Water Supply and Sanitation project at Presidential Hotel, Port Harcourt, last Friday.
Anga said that, “the project classified as Category 1 project by the Work Bank and African Development Bank is a large-scale project, and it is likely to lead to the displacement of over 200 persons.”
He identified the positive social impact of the project to include the fact that “with the new water system, the current unprotected sources will no longer be used, thus improving the health of residents in the project area”, adding that because of the poor water supply and sanitation situation in the city before now, some “90 per cent of the disease cases reported in Port Harcourt in 2010 were water and sanitation related, with 11,556 dysentery, 430 typhoid and 48 cholera cases”.
He hoped that the provision of sanitation facilities in market places and motor parks, and hygiene and sanitation promotion in line with the project scope, would further reduce the spread of diseases in the state capital.
Anga also emphasized that the project would be beneficial to children, as school drop-out and absenteeism were currently high due to domestic activities and selling water, stressing that, “These activities that involve both girls and boys would be minimized, reducing the water stress and allowing the children to attend school”.
According to him, the project would ensure social inclusion for poor households, as delivery mechanisms would include a significant number of yard taps and public kiosks to cater for low income residents.
He added that some of the numerous advantages of the project, include providing vocational training for the water vendors, allowing them to more readily seize other employment opportunities; enhancing youth employment opportunities through a fresh graduate attachment scheme to project-hired consultants and contractors; as well as the provision of temporary construction jobs.

Susan Serekara-Nwikhana