- Public Water Supply Resumes In Calabar
Whatever it was that crippled the Cross River State Water Board, causing the agency to be on life support for years appears to have been taken away, a few months into the government of Senator Bassey Otu.
Now, some parts of the state have already started seeing the flow of water in their homes, courtesy of the water board. Already, some foreign investors are partnering the water board in this direction and have assured that they would tackle the power supply challenge and thereafter intensify efforts at making steady water supply possible.
A few days ago, the state commissioner for water resources, Bassey Mensah was at one of the work sites with a team of engineers at Ikot Effanga Mkpa, Calabar, where desilting works were carried out, as part of efforts to restore potable water supply in Calabar.
According to Mensah, this was done to ensure that both the surface drainage system and the underground drains around the Water Intake Installations/Abstraction Point were completely and properly desilted to keep the environment and water channels clean and ready.
Calabar South: Goldie, Etta-Agbor, Ambo, Mbukpa, Mayne Avenue, Abua, Nyong Edem, Eyo Okon, Ephraim, Ekpo Abasi, Palm Street, Atakpa, etc.
As at Friday when the commissioner spoke with the TNN over the telephone, residents in the Calabar Municipal Council areas of state housing, Marian, Mekenke Layout, Effio Ette, and environs had started enjoying potable water supplies.
The commissioner said there were plans to extend the network to Tinapa and 8th Miles. He said those in Ikot Ishie, Ikot Ansa, and environs will equally being to have water supply as the Ikot Effanga High-Lift Pump Station which hitherto had power issue had been fixed.
Apart from Calabar, the Ogoja and Itigidi stations in the northern senatorial district and central senatorial districts respectively, are also supplying potable water to the people.
The commissioner assured the people of Cross River that the days of sweetness in water supply were here to stay, while saying that the engineering experts who are still at work in various parts of the state would continue to put in their best effort to meet the deadline for full and steady supply of water in parts of the state.
He charged the security personnel at the Water Intake Worksite and all the people around Ikot Effanga Mkpa to be vigilant and report any suspected movement in and around the environment to the government.
He said the state government under Otu was committed to proper management of water resources, wastewater, sanitation and hygiene to ensure a safe, clean and sustainable urban and rural water supply in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal-6, by the year 2030.
While on a tour of the Intake Worksite at Ikot Effanga, Etta-Agbor and the water treatment plant at Marian, in the company of a German investor and CEO of Compentis International GMBH, Mr Werner Grubelnig, the German investor spoke of his firm’s readiness to introduce a new and state of the art technology with modern water treatment system considered to be safer and cheaper and in line with international standards.
Grubelnig also assured that his company will come with a complete technology that will guarantee a-24- hour energy supply to stop reliance on PHED or diesel powered generating plants to produce, treat and supply potable water to Cross Riverians.
