An indigenous oil firm, First Exploration and Petroleum Development Company Limited (First E & P), on Thursday donated a solar powered water project to indigenes of Koluama 1 in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa.

The Project is expected to provide indigenes of the benefiting community and its environ with portable water to reduce cases of water borne disease.

The oil firm executed the project with KEFFES Rural Development Foundation.

KEFFES is an acronym for Koluama 1 and 2, Ezetu 1 and 2, Foropa, Fish Town; Ekeni, and Sangana oil-rich communities located along the Atlantic coastline in Bayelsa.

Speaking at the handover ceremony, Mr. Gerald Makiri, representative of First E and P, said that the solar powered water project is a pilot test that will be replicated around the host communities in the area.

“Fela in his popular song says ‘water no get enemy’, so we are hoping that this water will bring unity to this community. We are hoping that as you drink from the borehole sickness will varnish, more prosperity to Koluama 1, more prosperity to the women, youths, boys and girls,” Makiri said.

Receiving the project, Matthew Sele-epri, Chairman of KEFFES Rural Development Foundation, represented by HRH Moses Theophilus, Kenibara VII traditional ruler of Moko-Ama Sangana Kingdom thanked both First E and P and NNPC for the kind gesture but asked that more three additional points be built in the pilot scheme in Koluama 1.

He also appealed that the project should be replicated across all the KEFFES communities.

He noted that the project would be the first of its kind in the KEFFES rural communities.

“If you can recall that over time all our communities are surrounded with water but portable water to drink is a problem.

“And today as God may have it First E and P has been able to do deliver on its social development obligation and so we want to appreciate First E & P for this a very kind and a very proactive intervention.

“We are still demanding that this should be replicated in all the communities and all the KEFFES host communities because that is the only way we can see the goodness of this.

“Let it be replicated as it is done in Koluama 1. Let it also be done for all the communities for us to see this enjoyment we are seeing today.

“Since we are not reticulating that water and we can’t expect the whole community to be coming to fetch. So, we want to request that you do more of its kind,” he said.

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