By CHIMEZIE ANASO

The government of Anambra says the switch from diesel powered streetlights to solar powered alternative will soon be completed.

Mr. Julius Chukwuemeka, Commissioner for Power and Water Resources, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in an interview In Awka that the disruption in the streetlights project was due to the migration from diesel powered generators to solar powered energy.

Chukwuemeka said the diesel powered alternative had to be suspended because of its huge cost implication and adverse environmental effects..

He said the switch, which would be cheap and sustainable, would be concluded soon and streetlights restored.

He said the new system would also be made to run independently without the danger of outage in transmission noting that the streetlights were also part of the state’s security architecture.

“Looking at what we had in the past, we noticed that hundreds of millions of Naira was being spent on diesel to power these generators, what this government is doing is to cut costs and achieve more.

“At that time, the price of diesel was between N200 and N250 per litre but now it is between N800 and N850 per litre, you can see that it is no longer cost effective to use generators.

“Diesel is also not very environment -friendly because of the emissions, so after our comparative analysis, we concluded that the best way to power the streetlights is to migrate fully to solar energy.

“We are considering energy sources that are cost effective and also amenable to a green environment, it should also be independent such that we don’t depend on the national grid,” he said.

Chukwuemeka said the solar energy source initiative was slo being developed to power water schemes to drive public water supply projects in the state.

He said water supply had been restored at the State Secretariat complex, while the Iyiora pilot scheme in Anambra West was already functional with 5,000 gallons capacity reticulated solar motorised machine.

“However, we are discussing and working with EEDC to ensure that power supply hits 24 hours in most parts of the state and as you can see there has been overall improvement in power supply in Anambra,” he said (NAN)

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