By PAMELA EBOH, Awka

Scarcity of running water may soon be a thing of the past in Anambra as the State Government has kicked off the construction of model urban water projects that will serve as replacement for boreholes.

The tripartite project executed in collaboration with the World Bank and Africa Development Bank (ADB) will be divided into two phases is scheduled to be completed before the end of the year.

News Express reports that the administration of former Governor Peter Obi kicked off a N79 million Greater Awka Water Supply Scheme awarded to Olimax International Group.

Though the project was successful, the taps suddenly stopped running as soon as the tenure of that administration came to an end.

Speaking on the project at Nnewi, the Special Adviser to Governor Willie Obiano on Budget, Monitoring and Implementation, Sir Melie Onyejepu, said that work had already started at the abandoned water project located at Amuko in Nnewichi of the industrial city.

He explained that the pilot scheme which will serve as the first phase will cost $1 million and will, on completion, distribute potable water within the area it is sited, before going round the whole Nnewi community on completion of the second phase.

According to him, the collaboration with the foreign donors will enable the state pay counterpart funding of between N50million and N100 million.

While explaining that the project is divided into four sub units of engineering, house enumeration, metering and billing, Onyejepu urged Nnewi residents to cooperate with the enumerators in order to make their job easy.

He added: “Provision of water is a major democracy dividend. Anambra is working on various water projects to ensure provision of potable water.

“The ongoing water projects have five consultants on ground. The project will be completed on schedule without any interruption since the funds have been made available

“Previous governments did not invest in water and people began to sink boreholes which can cause disaster and the water is not assured to be clean. Anambra State met the World Bank parameters for the projects and they have been started.”

The governorship aide observed that the gains of public water supply far outweigh individual borehole projects, noting that apart from the high cost in maintaining the private water boreholes, the ecological problems they generate could also pose a threat to the residents.

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