NGGTour Delta: State Govt. to spend N9billion on expansion of Effurun water project

[FMINigeria]

                        The Delta State Government says it is to spend about 9 billion naira on rehabilitation and expansion of its regional water scheme in Effurun.

Briefing members of the National Good Governance Tour at the project site on Friday, the Delta State Commissioner for Water Resources Development, Dr. Chris Oghenechovwen, said the Water Scheme is one of the star projects of the State Government.

According to him, it was conceived before the advent of the present administration in the state.

He said the scheme is to provide water on a regional basis to 4 Local Government Areas which include Warri South and Uvwie L.G.As adding that under Phase 2 of the project Udu and Ughelli South Local Government Areas would be covered.

The Commissioner informed that the population of the Local Governments represent over 50 percent of the entire urban population in Delta State.

While conducting the team through the plant, Dr. Oghenechovwen said the project consists of various components which include a 45 meter high Water Reservoir Tower with capacity to hold 633,000 gallons of water and 2 nos 1,500 KVA generators which can be stepped up to 1,750 KVA.

He equally informed that the plant has a Daily treated water production capacity of 68,000 cubic meters. Oghenechovwen said each of the 17 bore holes can produce about 170 cubic meters of water per hour.

He further disclosed that the sum of 2.5 billion out of the about 9 billion naira earmarked for the project is yet to be spent.

The Commissioner said though water can be pumped to some of the areas, rehabilitation is being done on some pipes to reticulate water to the beneficiary communities.

He further informed that the last contractor's jobqa was terminated due to poor performance and the projected reviewed and reawarded to A.G Gold Trust Nigeria Ltd.

The representative of the new Contractor, AG Gold Trust Nigeria Ltd assured that the project would be delivered by December 2013.

Also speaking, the Project Consultant, Engr. Dennis Ofodile said with the assistance of the World Bank, analysis of the project was done and it was decided that ground water would be used instead of surface water.

"When we started this project, we weighed all the options and it was discovered that the whole surface water was blackish and oily.

Each of the 17 bore holes is 170 meters and we have more than enough water to last two hundred years", Ofodile said.

NUJ President, Mallam Mohammed Garba described the project as a worthwhile venture urging the contractor to deliver on time.

Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku noted that Warri is a major urban area within Delta State and Nigeria. He said a lot of economic activities in Nigeria depend on what happens in Warri.

He therefore tasked the contractor to speed up completion of the project emphasizing the importance of water in driving economic, industrial and domestic activities among other uses.

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Via: Federal Ministry of Information (FMI) Nigeria