By Bashir Hassan Abubakar
President Muhammadu has commended Bauchi State Government for it’s giant strides in making provision for urban water supply to the citizens of the state.
The President gave the commendation in Bauchi while on a one day working visit to commission the World Bank Assisted upgraded urban water supply scheme in the state metropolis at the Gubi water treatment plant.
The President who was represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, said the National Water Sector Reform Project is part of effort to promote better living for the populace by increasing access to water supply in the states of the federation.
He appealed to the state government to ensure the management of the facility for the benefit of the citizens of the state.
“This Upgraded Bauchi Township Water Scheme has the capacity to supply the water demand of over one million people and I congratulate the good people of Bauchi, my people, for being the beneficiary of this legacy. I am not surprised by this accomplishment because the state government personally pursed the project with vigour and determination through allocation of resources to eliminate bottlenecks and challenges including the COVID-19 which affected the project extension.
“Essentially, the federal government, as it is required under the Multi-National Donor Funded Project, provided the Guarantee as well as the critical supervision and the oversight through the office of the National Urban Sector Reform Project domiciled in the Federal Ministry of Water Resources”, said the President.
Speaking at the occasion, Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State, reiterated the commitment of his administration to service delivery in general and water supply in particular, assuring that, the state government will do everything possible to resuscitate the hitherto moribund water supply facilities in all the communities in the state.
The governor observed that, providing a dedicated power line to the waterworks will ensure quality power supply from the national grid which in turn will enhance the supply of water and pointed out that, the design and construction for the supply of water in Ningi and Dass towns as well as the design and provision of water in all headquarters of local governments of the State has commenced in Alkaleri local government area.
“My Government inherited the Third National Urban Water Sector Reform Project, a World Bank supported Project initiated by your good Government and our predecessors. The project commenced in 2015 with Bauchi State as one of the selected beneficiary states, as a key measure to address the water shortage challenge in Bauchi metropolis. It was to realize this noble object that on assumption of office my administration pursued the project with vigor and in our avowed determination to ensure continuity and dynamism in governance, we flagged off the various construction activities under the Project, which hitherto had been dormant due to lack of political will.”
“Water Supply is an important component of service delivery of every responsible government and the result of all this is the overstretching of public utilities, including water supply, the situation in Bauchi is compounded by the dilapidated infrastructure my administration met on assumption of office. Water supply schemes in most communities were either operating in an epileptic manner or completely broken down”, the Governor said.