Abaji MDGs water project remains uncompleted
Mr. Francis Joshua, 43, is a resident of Abattoir New Extension in Abaji Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and said he spends N6,000 monthly to buy water from vendors in the area due to lack of access to potable drinking water.
He said despite residents of the area living close to a stream, they cannot drink stream water because of the dirt and other waste that flow into it. He said the only option they are left with is to patronise water vendors.
Joshua said he buys a small tank of water for N 2,000 which he said serves him for only three days, saying members of his family also use the water for other domestic purposes, noting that the noncompletion of the MDGs water project which was started over six years ago, contributes to the challenges of water that residents of the area face.
“I believe that if the multimillion naira MDGs water project, which is very close to the bridge, is completed and the reticulation of pipes is also done up to this area, surely we will heave a sigh of relief,” he said.
He told Aso Chronicle that residents of the area who can afford it get water from the water vendors, while others who cannot go to the stream.
Another resident, Mr. Benjamin Ayuba, who resides at Low Cost area noted that people of the area had thought that by now they would have overcome their water scarcity challenge when the construction of the MGDs water project in the area started over six years ago.
Aso Chronicle has observed that in some communities within the council, many residents, especially rural dwellers, resort to scooping water from drying streams for their domestic uses.
Though some communities have hand dug boreholes, they are not functional.
Our reporter learnt that the multimillion naira water project was started by a former council chairman, Alhaji Musa Yahaya Mohammed, in 2012.
The former council chairman went into partnership with the office of the MDGs in the FCT and the sum of N800 million was expected to be expended for the construction of the water project, which was being executed by a Chinese company (CGC Nigeria Limited).
Aso Chronicle, however, gathered that construction work on the water project was done for two years and later stopped, which prompted some residents of the council to express their concern over the delay in the completion of the water project.
“The water project ought to be completed so that people will save their money from buying water from water vendors and private boreholes,” a resident, Usman Yakubu said.
He said the council was expected to pay the sum of N400 million as its counterpart fund.
Another resident, Mr. James Ayuba, expressed disappointment over the non-completion of the water project, saying water is life and any government that denied its people water is not people friendly.
“At least, one is happy that the MDGs water project in Abaji was through the effort of the former chairman of the council, Alhaji Musa Yahaya, but the project ought to have been completed by now so that people will save their money from buying water from water vendors and private borehole owners,” a resident of the council had said.
A civil servant, who resides at Low Cost in the area, Dauda Yakubu, said he was compelled to sink a bore hole due to the amount of money he spent on daily basis to buy water from vendors.
“In fact, I used to spend a minimum of N500 to N600 on daily basis to buy water from vendors because I have a family and when I sat down to calculate the amount I spend it was much so I decided to sink a borehole,” he said.
The then former Senior Special Assistant on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Dr. Precious Gbeneol, also visited the water project site sometime in early January, 2013, in company of some FCDA officials to assess the level of work on the project.
However, a reliable source at the area council, who preferred anonymity, confided in Aso Chronicle that the delay in completion of the MDGs water project was as a result of non-payment of N400 million counterpart funding by the former council chairman, Alhaji Musa Yahaya Mohammad.
A staff at the MDGs then, who didn’t want his name mentioned, told Aso Chronicle that what is left is the reticulation of water pipes to some neighbouring villages, such as Nuku, Naharati, Kekeshi, Agyana and Manderegi.
When contacted, the Director of Economic Planning and Statistics of the FCTA, Alhaji Abubakar S. Pai, referred our reporter to the Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the FCT Minister, Malam Abubakar Sani.
When Aso Chronicle contacted the minister’s, media aide via telephone, he said work on Abaji MDGs water project was not abandoned. He said the delay in completion of the project was due to the introduction of the Single Treasury Account, and that work will soon commence.
“Note that the Abaji MDGs water project is abandoned, as there is a specific amount of money that is earmarked for the completion of the water project, which is about N300 million, but due to the introduction of the TSA, the project got stalled.
“But work will soon commence as the treasury department of the FCDA addresses some of the bottlenecks,” he said.