The Federal government of Nigeria has announced the completion of 200 solar motorized boreholes and upgrading of Rural Water Scheme across the Maiduguri metropolis.
Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources, Alhaji Mustapha Aminami revealed the reports and said that the projects aim at enhancing access to portable water in Maiduguri metropolis and adjourning communities.
“Water supply is one of the cardinal objectives of the state government. The challenge we have is the demand and supply; we recorded influx of population in the metropolis which outweighed water supply,” said Mustapha Aminami.
“The projects were executed in the past four years; to augment water supply from the Alao water treatment plant, to meet the demand of the growing population in the metropolis,” he added.
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Rural Water Scheme
The Aloa treatment plant was designed to supply water to about 500, 000 people, however, presently we have a population of over three million people in the metropolis due to displacement caused by the insurgency
The boreholes and water tanks equally distributed at residential areas, markets and other strategic locations to enhance access to safe drinking water for human and animal consumption.
The Minister pointed out that over US $277m was spent on the upgrade, rehabilitation and construction of boreholes as well as provision of power generators at Bama resettled community. The State government had also deployed 30 newly recruited engineers and other specialists to the ministry, to deal with manpower shortage and enhance its operations.
The State government in collaboration with International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), also rehabilitated a water facility in Maiduguri with the capacity to deliver nine million liters of water daily. The state government has earmarked over US $8m for water sector in the 2019 fiscal year.
