Since the declaration of March 22 as the water day by the United Nation, it has always been a yearly routine of countries within the united nation who always set aside the day to celebrate and reflect the problems and challenges associated with water.
Water being one of the major necessities of life, is seen by many both the government and others as one of the social responsibilities of government and not for profit or commercial venture.
This has been discovered by professional and experts in the water sector which made government to sometime abandon its duty of providing water for the people because of the high cost associated with it without much interest inspite of the importance water plays in human lives.
In Akwa Ibom for instance, government have invested so much in the provision of adequate water supply for the people of the state. It could be recalled that the immediate past administration of Governor Victor Attah in Akwa Ibom State obtained a loan worth billions of naira for total revamping of the water sector in the state and which was also used to upgrade all the facilities which later encouraged the metarmorphosis of Akwa Ibom Water cooperation to Akwa Ibom Company Limited to be able to provide portable drinking water to the people of Akwa Ibom State. About 21 water sub-stations were built in 21 local government areas of the state completely equipped with all the necessary facilities to be able to provide water for the people of the state.
Though the scheme was a laudable achievement government and it added to whatever efforts were invested towards solving the water concerns of the people, unfortunately the scheme has not really been able to achieve it desired objective which is to supply water to every house hold in the state.
Part of the problems affecting the state water company according to the board chairman of the state water company, Hon. Patrick Ifon was the inability of government to release the take off grant to the water company that would make it function independently as a company according to its initial plan. But because the state water company is still a state government parastatal not fully empowered by law, financially to stand on its own to generate funds and employ the best hands to manage the company makes the company to instead of moving forward is going backward.
The board chairman had then maintained that because the company is depending on the state government budget, sometimes money budgeted for the water company each year are not released for the running of the company which is now totally depending on generators to power the plants because of the nature of the electricity supply in the country.
The managing director of the Akwa Ibom Water Company, Engr Ernest Usoro also blamed the problem affecting the state water Company and its supplies to many factors and that is not able to fulfil its mandate on the problem of power supply which the company is now totally depending on generators to power the water plants which he said does not go down well with the company and the development has made the company to spend more than it generates to be able to power the generators.
He further said that construction companies are not helping matters in the state because of the ongoing construction work they will destroy water pipes without replacement even when that has been provided for in the project cost, they will refuse to replace those pipes destroyed while carrying out construction work.
Speaking on phone with this reporter on the occasion of the water day, Engr. Usoro said that the primary objective of the company is to make water available for everybody in the state, but the major challenges that the company is having is in the power supply, water supply is dependent on constant power supply because the company cannot afford to supply water through standby generators, standby, generators are meant for emergencies.
According to him, “if you are from this country and this state in particular you will agree with me that power supply has been very eratic. Sometimes for two days you will see light for two hours or some time you don’t even see, so when this happens we are kind of being frustrated so we resort to buying diesel at a very exorbitant rates to power generators and then pump water and to be able to pump enough and distribute to all the centres is a very big challenge. “Why that day was set aside by united nation was that water has been a big problem to not only Nigeria but other developed nations since water delivery is capital intensive. It is only 30% percent water for drinking and others do not have.
‘that was why the united nation set aside the 22nd of march every year to reflect on how to make water available for all and to bring together all nations, states and stakeholders in the water sector to tackle the challenges. ‘Ever since i came on board, i have taken the matter to the state government who are the sole owner of the company, as at now government is aware of the problems confronting the company and has taken steps to surmount them. Already we have gone out to get external financials to come in and see how they can help in ameliorating this problems, one of such external financial is the European union EU who have indicated a strong interest to invest in the water sector of the state, the consultant is already on ground, preliminary work has been concluded and sent to them which we hope very soon something tangible will take place”, the MD added. As the Akwa Ibom State joins the country Nigeria and other nations in celebrating this year’s water day, it is important we reflect on the necessity of water to human life by government and all stakeholders in the sector in a bid to step up investment in providing potable water to the people.
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