By Olukayode Michael Maiduguri
A water plant built at over a billion Naira with a daily
capacity of 9 million litres built by the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC) has been opened in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
The project, Alhamduri Water Plant, is to service 150,000 people when it fully
comes on scheme.
Speaking at the commissioning in Maiduguri on Monday, the Nigeria’s Head of
Delegation of the ICRC, Mr. Eloi Fillion said at present over 80,000 residents
and internally displaced persons in the troubled town have better access to
water following the construction and rehabilitation of the water plant built in
the western part of the town.
He said the project was a collaboration with the Ministry of Water Resources in
Borno State.
He said: “Over the past years, access to water for people of the Lake Chad
Region has increasingly become difficult.
“Surface water sources have been dwindling, and the protracted armed conflict
has kept several hundred thousand of people away from their home for years,
depriving them of the regular source of water.
“In just a few years, Maiduguri population increased from two to well over
three million inhabitants, offering refuge to thousands of people fleeing the
violence.”
He added that: “Water became more expensive, more difficult to get and of
poorer quality for the residents as well as for the displaced people, exposing
the entire population to increased health risks.”
He said that the ICRC partnership with the Borno State Government was
necessitated by this,” which has led to expanding the capacity of existing
infrastructures, by drilling three additional boreholes and building the
production facility, both on the ground and elevated tanks.
The Borno Governor, Prof. Babagana Umara, who commissioned the project, said
approval has been given for the connection of the water to the various houses.
He appealed to ICRC and other public spirited organisations to come forward and
be counted in the ongoing reconstruction of destroyed communities in Borno
State.
