Gov Peter Mbah depends on emergency water from Ninth Mile to fulfil his promise of delivering water to Enugu City.
In his 100-day anniversary address yesterday, Mbah restated the promise optimism to deliver on the promise. There are only 79 days left.
The Governor confirmed Enugu Metro investigative story that new boreholes are being dug at Ninth Mile.
“We have made extensive progress in meeting our promise to provide water to Ndi Enugu,” he said.
“Currently, we have commenced the production of over 25 million litres of water daily at our Ninth Mile location, the most we have achieved in the last 20 years…”
“…We are poised to have up to 70 million liters daily by the end of next month.
“At this rate, we are ahead of the curve in our race to deliver water to Ndi Enugu by the end of November which will mark 180 days since our inauguration, in line with our promise,” he said in his 2308-word speech.
Enugu Metro had reported that unserviceable equipment at the flagship Ajali Owa main water scheme threatened the deadline. The governor decommissioned the equipment and ordered new ones which are yet to arrive.
The French Development Agency (FAD) provided $50million grant for the Enugu water production and reticulation project.
Unlike his predecessors, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi was slow in accessing the funds. In over four years, he was able to draw down about €3million, sources said.
The state government hitherto wasted tens of millions of Naira in attempts to fix the pumps and other equipment.
The Governor gave himself a deadline of 180 days from his date of assumption of office for pipe borne water to reach all parts of Enugu.
Enugu Metro found this a tall order, as it would take years to reach all parts of the city. Our investigations show that the situation is further complicated by the state of equipment in both Ajali and Oji River.
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