The administration of Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State said it has through the recent rehabilitation of facilities at Ajalli and Oji River Water Treatment Schemes registered a remarkable improvement in the daily supply of water to Enugu metropolis and its environs.
A status report by the Managing Director of Enugu State Water Corporation, Engr. Chidozie Eze, stated that “Ajalli and Oji water schemes presently produce 10,000m3 and 15,000m3 respectively daily.”
Engr. Eze revealed that “prior to the assumption of office by the present administration, the water supply situations in Enugu metropolis and Nsukka urban were comatose with Oji and Ajalli water schemes almost at the verge of collapse”.
He added that “Nsukka urban was barely managing with one functional borehole”, disclosing that Gov. Ugwuanyi’s administration consequently “invested enormous fund in the rehabilitation of Oji Augmentation and Ajalli Water schemes”.
The managing director maintained that contrary to erroneous impression being peddled that there is no water in Enugu, there has been increased water production and distribution to more consumers in Enugu metropolis as “tremendous boost in water supply has been noticed by the residents of Enugu”.
According to him, “the high elevated areas of Enugu that have not been supplied water for a long time now, prior to the inception of Ugwuanyi’s administration, had water within last month and counting.
“Such areas include but not limited to Nkpokiti, Rangers Camp, Independence Avenue, Ezillo Street, Federal Government College, Iyienu Street, Rangers Avenue, House of Assembly and parts of Nza Street”.
Engr. Eze further disclosed that “significant feat was achieved in getting water to some areas in Abakpa that we were hitherto unable to supply because of low level of water in our reservoirs”.
At the University town of Nsukka, Engr. Eze said that four boreholes are now functional as against two, stressing that it has “greatly improved water supply to areas such as Enugu Road, Onuiyi, Ibagwa Road, Obollo Road, G.R.A, Ogurugu Road, Barrack Junction, Ofulonu Road, Odenigbo, Amukwa, etc”.
The Managing Director further stated that because of persistent problem of power supply from the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC), the present administration in the state embarked on the construction of a dedicated power line linking Ajalli scheme to Oji Sub-station.
“This project has been completed and energized” and “power supply to this water scheme has consequently and tremendously improved”, the managing director said.
On the leakage at the foot of the Milliken Hill, Ngwo, for over two decades, which reduced the quantity of water that gets to the consumers, he explained that the state government has constructed a pipeline by-passing the reservoir, to ensure adequate supply of water to the people.
Engr. Eze, who pointed out that the last batch of water treatment chemicals supplied in February 2016 have since been exhausted, disclosed that “as soon as this situation was made known to His Excellency, he gave approval for the replenishment of water treatment chemicals in the stores”, saying: “We have already received truck-loads of alum and lime while others are in transit”.
Re-emphasizing the need for the sustenance of the significant improvements in supply of water in Enugu urban and Nsukka, the corporation reiterated the state government’s commitment to ensure adequate water supply to the people of the state in line with its four-point agenda.
