Decay in infrastructures hinder water supply in A’Ibom -MD, Water Company
The Managing Director, Akwa Ibom Water Company (AKWC), Barr. Aniefiok Ukpe, has said that decay in infrastructures and damages caused by several road constructions in the state hindered the company from supplying water to most of the communities in the state.
Ukpe told Daily Times correspondent on Monday that most of the pipelines used in connecting water to local areas have been outdated, and needed to be replaced by modern pipes to ensure that water supply reach every community as it used be in the past.
Some communities in the state had complained about lack of good sources of drinkable water, which make must of the riverine areas resorted to stream as their only source of water, which they complained causes water borne diseases.
According to Ukpe, “The state government and management of AKWC recognize that portable water is essential to human life as enshrined in goal No.7 of the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations, hence we have made conscious efforts to ensure water supply to meet the need of the people.
“But the bulk of the problem is that most of the structures we put in place some years ago have gone bad, some are outdated, while construction companies have damaged some, so we need government assistance to replace them.”
The managing director added that power supply is also a very big challenge to the company to carry out its duties of supplying good drinkable water to the people, he said the cost of running the company using generating sets is very high.
He said, “The challenges we are facing are lack of power supply, lack of funds to either maintain the existing structures or to put new ones,
that is why we plead with the state government, whenever they give out contracts for construction of roads, they should mandate those contractors to engage us to realign our pipes to avoid damages to our structures which are functioning at the moment.”
He announced that the management is planning to revamp all existing water stations in the major towns in the state; he listed the places to include Abak, Oron, Ikono, Ukanafun and Ikot Ekpene.
Our correspondent observed that some communities in the state have been cut off from the public water supply for many years due to damages on pipelines and other structures of the company.
In assuaging the challenges confronting the people in area of water supply, governor Udom Emmanuel had in few months into office in 2015 constructed “Water kiosk” around Uyo to help the people whose water supply have been cut from their home have alternative source of water.
