Gombe State Governor Inuwa Yahaya yesterday flagged off the construction of five water booster stations to enhance the water supply in the state.
Commencing the multi-billion naira project, the governor said the Dadin-Kowa water treatment plant which supplies water to the state was commissioned about 15 years ago when the population of Gombe State was around 2.6 million. According to him, the state’s population has grown to over 3.6 million now due to rapid urbanization and the influx of people fleeing the Boko Haram insurgency from the frontline states of Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa, adding that the development puts tremendous pressure on the provision of basic social services like water, sanitation, health, and education.
“When I came to office in 2019, the water treatment plant at Dadin-Kowa was in a state of disrepair and had over N5 billion in unpaid obligations to contractors and suppliers “Within the first 100 days in office, I commissioned a task force with the mandate to address the water situation in Gombe metropolis. Through these interventions, we mobilized contractors and undertook essential repairs and rehabilitation of water distribution channels which enabled us to pump about 50 million liters of water daily to Gombe and its environs,” he said. The governor also said that his administration had built and rehabilitated over 600 boreholes across the 11 local government areas of the state and partnered with the federal government to expand the water supply under this project. Also speaking, the minister of water resources, Sulaiman Adamu, said the federal government partnered with Gombe State to deliver sustainable water and sanitation facilities across the state in line with the national water supply and sanitation policy. He said the federal government was committed to addressing water and sanitation challenges through collaborative funding with state governments. To establish the water booster stations, the project was awarded under a 70:30 funding arrangement between the state government and the federal government which will provide 165 kilometers distribution network to connect under-served communities.
