By Adeyinka Olumide
Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has revived a 70 million-gallon waterworks project sites in Adiyan, in the Northwestern part of the State.
The Governor, on Thursday, led members of the State’s Executive Council to the project site on an inspection tour, following the re-mobilisation of the contractor handling the construction.
The Adiyan II Waterworks project started in 2013 during the administration of the former Governor Babatunde Fashola to provide safe drinking water to more than five million Lagos residents. The project was 70 per cent completed before it was abandoned.
Sanwo-Olu said his administration decided to complete the abandoned water project because of its strategic importance to the wellbeing of the people. He said the revival of the project would help his government to address the causes of poverty and fight diseases.
He said: “When this water works project is fully completed, it will be the biggest of its type anywhere in Nigeria and we will be raising the capacity of our potable water supply by 330,000 cubic metric tons per day, which is more than 70 million gallons.
“The commitment from our side is for us to see how we are going to finish this project on time and as much as possible within the budget. The contractor has said it is committed to see how the project will be completed in the next 18 months. Our government will work with the contractor and the project consultant to deliver this project on agreed terms.
“If we achieve this within the next two years, we would be achieving one of the key items of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which is also a strategic pillar of our development agenda in the area of provision of safe drinking water to over five million citizens of Lagos.”
Sanwo-Olu said his administration would be awarding contract for the commencement of the second and third phases of the water project, which are reticulation works and construction of 8-kilometre water intake conduits from Akute to Adiyan.
The Governor added that some of the impediments encountered in the project, including compensations and right of way, would be addressed to allow the contractor finish the project in record time.
He said: “We will award contracts for the second phase of this project, which is reticulation that will take the water to Ikeja, Alimosho, Surulere and Yaba.
“The third part of the project is the construction of an intake mechanism, which is about 8 kilometres from Akute Water Intake site. Some parts of the construction work were suspended because of issues around the right of way with the residents and the Ogun State. We are also going to finalise on that. We would pay all the compensation to ensure that they can lay the pipes.”
The Adiyan II Water Works is sited on 210 hectares of land in a borderline community between Lagos and Ogun states.
Dr. Piero Capitanio, Managing Director of Salini Nigeria Limited, the contractor handling the project, assured the Governor that the waterworks would be delivered in 18 months.
Sanwo-Olu also inspected the Lagos State Water Corporation (LSWC) infrastructure in Iju-Akute axis, with the objective to rejig operations and turnaround output of the state-owned water facilities.
The Governor assessed the distribution facilities of Iju Water Works built in 1914, after which he led members of his team to inspect water intake machinery and power station built to serve the Lagos water stations on the axis.
Speaking to reporters after the inspection, Sanwo-Olu expressed worry over the state of the inspected facilities, but promised to source for private funding to revamp the infrastructure.
He said: “We have gone around the major water plants in Lagos and we’ve seen the issues for ourselves. Part of the things we noticed is that we need to try and raise money, get new investment to be able to improve the input of these important facilities.
On the power plant, we also need to scale up and get another one for Adiyan II Water Works, which will be ready in 18 months. So it’s a total eco-chain we are looking at. We have to start the planning from now to ensure that the new water works we are building has a dedicated power plant to make it functional.”
