By YANGE IKYAA
In line with the Federal Government’s resolve to commission all completed projects in the 2022-2023 fisical year, the ministry of water resources has completed, commissioned and handed over the 5 million-litres-per-day Patigi Water Supply Project to the Kwara State Government.
The newly completed project is expected to be used for the provision of potable water to Patigi town and outlying communities in the state.
The minister of water resources, Engr Suleiman Adamu, who commissioned the project on Thursday, revealed that the project was executed in two phases.
According to him, the 1st phase of the project was awarded to Messrs Gilmor Engineering Ltd and Messrs Yemaq Group Ltd as the Supervising Consultant in December 2012 with about 45% completion rate in 2014. He added that in order to move the project forward, the 2nd phase was awarded to Messrs CGC Nigeria Ltd in 2019 with Messrs Qiblat Associates as the Supervising Consultant with a completion period of 24 months.
The minister added that the project was satisfactorily executed and fully completed and delivered in June 2022, stressing that the elements of the works that have been executed and fully completed under the project include the raw water intake building, comprising of three low lift pumps, control panels and a mobile crane for maintenance; as well as a conventional treatment plant with a capacity of 5 million liters/day, including an aeration tank.
Also embedded in the water works are sedimentation tank and filtration gallery, chemical building with chemical dosing and mixing machines and post chlorination injection system, a 5 million-litre capacity ground clear-water concrete storage tank, and a 100,000-liter overhead tank on a 6 meter-height stanchion at the headworks.
The minister emphasized that the 5-million-liter-per-day water supply project is expected to serve over 200,000 people resident in Patigi town and neighbouring communities, adding that the quality of the treated water from the scheme has been subjected to laboratory tests and established to be within national and international standards for drinking water.
Engr Adamu reiterated that some other projects executed by the Federal Government, especially in the rural areas of Kwara State in recent years, include solar-powered borehole schemes in Rani Rahmat, Emiworogi and Lille in Patigi LGA, Kanbi and Oloko-Nla in Moro LGA, Offa in Offa LGA, Agbeola-Oro in Oro LGA, Kolofo in Asa LGA, Yawu in Edu LGA, and Omu-Aran in Irepodun LGA.
Others are the construction and rehabilitation of 13 water points under the COVID-19 WASH Intervention Programme in 8 LGAs, in addition to numerous other water supply schemes constructed by Lower Niger River Basin Development Authority in the form of constituency projects and other special interventions.
The minister noted that the contractor has trained operational staff of Kwara State Water Board on various aspects of running the scheme for the benefit of the teeming Patigi population, and urged the Kwara State government to ensure proper management and maintenance of the water facility through its water board in order to provide long term service to the people.
In his remarks, the Kwara State Governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq represented by the Kwara State commissioner for water resources, Dr. Abdulmaliq Bashir Mopelola Risikatullahi, thanked the Federal Government and the minister of water resources for the laudable project, noting that the project will relieve the residents of Patigi of the burden of perennial water shortage, reduce the influence of waterborne diseases, and improve the living standards of the people of the area and its immediate suburbs.
Goodwill message was given by the DMD-CGC, Mr. Fanxiaojing, royal blessings were offered by His Royal Highness, the Etsu of Patigi, Etsu Alhaji Umaru Bologi II, and an overview of the Water Supply Project was given by the director of water supply, federal ministry of water resources, Engr Danjuma Madaki.
The high point of the occasion was the official signing of the Patigi Water Supply Project documents and the handing over of the keys and other necessary documents to the Kwara State government.
