After taking over the reins of leadership, Senator Bala Mohammed had made a sincere pledge to improve all sectors in the FCT; this is inclusive of the provision of clean portable water to the Capital City and its environs, owing to the fact that water is life and its utmost importance in the day to day activities of man cannot be over accentuated.
In an encouraging manner, the FCT Administration has completed the Lower Usuma Dam water project. It will be evoked that during the Good Governance tour of the FCT last November, Senator Bala Mohammed had guaranteed residents and visitors alike to the FCT that the project will be completed in the shortest possible time.
Supply of potable water to Abuja had been a major challenge to the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) as a result of the overwhelming influx of people into the FCT, thus creating an upsurge in the population of the territory. The rapid population upsurge in the FCT has heightened the problem of illegal squatter structures development in the territory; consequently the current Administration will continue to remove such unlawful structures with all necessary consideration and caution to moderate the traumatic effects such action will cause affected residents.
Senator Bala has brought his experience to bear with regards to handling the critical water situation in the FCT, and based on the priority that has been ascribed towards tackling the water shortages; the FCT Minister had paid visits to the lower Usuma dam to inspect and ascertain the level of work done and to ensure that phase 3 and 4 of the dam’s water treatment which was at 95% completion is on schedule for commissioning.
The FCT Administration has already connected the water treatment plants to the existing phases 1 and 2 currently in use, for an optimized supply of water to residents of the Federal Capital Territory. Basically, the completion and connection has ensured a sturdy improvement of water supply to the Federal Capital City and some Satellite Towns; thus prevailing over the past problem of scarcity of water in Abuja metropolis and its environs.
The water situation in the FCT is reasonable enough, what has lagged behind overtime is the water infrastructure of which the administration of Senator Bala Mohammed is honestly tackling directly, we are all aware also of the enormous inflow of people on a daily basis into the Capital Territory warranting the massive usage of water.
For a comprehensive approach to the problem the Administration of the FCT under Bala had done everything humanly possible to ensure that Gurara dam is completed, so that there is enough water about 8 times of what is available at the lower Usuma dam for consumption by residents of the FCT. In addition the water treatment plant being constructed to treat the raw water from Gurara dam, has its essential components in place; the Chlorination Room, the Filtration, Rotors, Clarifiers are all in place, the only missing component at that time was the water pipe to convey raw water from Gurara dam to the treatment plant, which I’m glad to say has been completed and put in place.
The previous laying of pipes along the Outer Northern Expressway (ONEX) or Kubwa-Zuba-Asokoro Expressway was to optimize the distribution of water to the City and its environs; there is water in Life Camp, Jabi, and Utako but coming to Phase 1 due to the scenery in places like Maitama Minister’s hill and the rest, these are very high places similar to Wuse II near the British Embassy and most places that are hilly; water won’t be available due to rationing system.
The pressure at these points is very low, the problem will be remedied with a constant power supply to the booster stations that pumps water to these high level areas, now the booster station uses public power supply which is inconsistent and inadequate to sustain pressure to these high areas, efforts are being made to use generators for more consistency to pump water to all high located places.
In the not distant past the FCT Administration had previously restored water to some parts of Gwarinpa Estate that previously never had water; then the major constraint affecting the distribution of water to every part of Gwarinpa estate was predicated on the mere fact that there were just a network of pipes that led to individual properties but the individual pipelines that run into the properties were never laid from the start, at that moment the FCT water Board was laying the connection in Gwarinpa Estate; that is the house to house connection which was rather time consuming. More people were consequently engaged to ensure the swift completion of the job.
The basic framework that was evolved is predicated on a methodical plan of water transfer; as the dry season sets in plans have already been set in motion by the FCT water Board with the Gurara transfer program in place; with about 850 cubic meters of water as compared to Lower Usuma Dam’s 100 cubic meters. The transfer occurs in a systematic way such that when the dry season sets, the lower Usuma Dam is used to a definite point then raw water is transferred from Gurara Water to the lower Usuma dam.
This transferred water is now drawn for treatment and distribution; in essence this creative method ensures the availability of raw water for treatment and distribution. As it is now there is water up to Gwagwalada, kubwa and Nyanya, the only places that have not been reached by the FCT Water Board are places like kuje and Karshi. With this new development, the impact of the Gurara Water Transfer project would be now be adequately felt athwart the whole of the Federal Capital Territory as raw water can be expediently transferred and treated for the populace.
Senator Bala Mohammed is willing to do much more in the overriding public interest, in the bid to ensure that the water sector develops drastically to a point where water reaches all the nooks and crannies of the FCT, with no more water shortages of any kind whatsoever.
Written By Mohammed Awwal Ibrahim
