By Priscilla Campbell,
Minna
Niger State Government has announced plans to block all means of water leakage in the state.
The state Commissioner for Water Resources and Dams Development, Yusuf Suleiman, disclosed this in Minna.
He said that the measure was to ensure regular water supply to residents.
Frowning at the level of wastages during an inspection of facilities and materials delivered to Niger State Water Board (NSWB) under the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Effective Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (E-WASH) Programme the commissioner noted that the government has drawn a line to fix the challenges by the end of March, 2020.
Suleiman also expressed the resolve of the government to curb all forms of commercial theft, where vandals break pipes resulting to illegal deals.
His words: “We are going to look at all these losses holistically so that very soon we can become independent and not go to the government for financial assistance.
“With the support of the E-WASH Program funded by USAID, pipes, fittings, plumbing tools, protective clothings, data base server and tablets have been delivered to the NSWB as a result of us (Government) meeting the required milestones.
“We have upgraded power supply from 11 to 33kv at the Water Board headquarters, we have renovated central laboratory, non-revenue unit, sanitation unit, customer care unit, monitoring and evaluation unit, gender and pro-poor unit for better service delivery.”
While commending the E-WASH Program funded by USAID, the commissioner said, “the project is the best thing that could ever happen to the water sector, stressing, “we are ready to work with people who are passionate about water service delivery in the state.”
Also, the General Manager, NSWB, Engr. Hassan Chado, said that one of the main objectives of the board was to tackle non-revenue water and leakages that will soon be a thing of the past with the delivery of materials by USAID E-WASH to the Board.
