25th May, 2018
The Federal Government has handed over the completed Northern Esan Water Project at Ugboha Community, Esan South East Local Government Area to the Edo government.
The Minister of Water Resources, Alhaji Suleiman Adamu, handed over the documents of the project to Gov. Godwin Obaseki in Benin on Thursday.
Adamu said the water project cost about N3.85 billion and has the capacity to generate nine million litres of water per day.
The minister said he was part of the conception of the water project in 1997 as a consultant under the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF).
He noted that lack of fund made the project suffer a set back but the present administration has completed it after about 20 years.
“We have finished our intervention programme and we are here today to hand over the project to the Edo government led by Godwin Obaseki.”
He expressed satisfaction in the quality of job done and hoped the agencies in charge with operating the scheme to ensure its sustainability.
In his response, Obaseki thanked the President Buhari led administration for completing the project saying it would go a long way in solving the water problem in Esan land.
“I want to assure you that as a progressive government we are in line with the water policies of the Federal government.
“We have been following your policy guidelines to undertake our water reforms in the state.”
Obaseki disclosed that a bill setting up Small Water Agencies in the state had been passed by the State House of Assembly and the government had trained several people in different communities to set up association to protect water facilities in their domains.
He said his administration was also restructuring its urban water board arrangement and working to implement the Niger Delta Support Programme (NDSP) supported by the European Union (EU).
“We have paid N700 million as our own counterpart funding and EU is providing about two to three billion naira for the NDSP.
“We expect that all these investment will provide water in Esan land and other areas in the state,” the governor said.