N3.7bn water facility ends Kazaure’s decades of water scarcity — Badaru

Gov. Muhammad Badaru of Jigawa on Wednesday commended President Muhammadu Buhari’s efforts for bringing the three-decade water scarcity in Kazaure to an end with the inauguration of a N3.7 billion water scheme facility.

Badaru spoke while unveiling the Kazaure Water Supply Scheme, designed and built by the Federal Government as part of its water intervention aids to rural communities in the country.

He said that the state could not thank the Federal Government enough for the support it had been giving to Jigawa since the inception of the Buhari-led administration.

The governor pointed out that everybody was aware of the ongoing project at the Hadejia Valley, where new water channels were being created preparatory to the construction of irrigation infrastructure by the Federal Government.

He said that the projects and many others associated with irrigation currently being handled by both the state and federal governments would change the fortunes of the state in the near future.

Badaru said his administration would take advantage of Igari irrigation dam project, noting that the dam, though based in Kano State, had more than one third of its area covered in Roni Local Government Area of Jigawa.

According to him, it is expected that more than 300 farmers will be connected to tap from the water for their irrigation business activities in the first phase, when completed.

Earlier, the Minister of Water Resources, Mr Suleiman Adamu, said that the Kazaure water supply scheme was perfected by federal government and its quality of was of national and international standard, with the total capacity of 10 million litres per day.

Adamu said the project was designed to supply potable water to a total of 500,000 residents of Kazaure and environs.

He said that 24 staff members who were drawn from the Jigawa state government service had been trained preparatory to the takeover of the facility for its maintenance.

The minister said that the provision of potable water was the responsibility of the three tiers of government.

According to him, the federal government is expected to look after maritime areas, while the state and council areas are to provide potable water to the citizens.

He, therefore, thanked Governor Badaru for providing the state government support throughout the project.

Adamu also lauded the governor for approving more than N500 million to facilitate the completion of pipeline network before the take off of the scheme.

He said that under the scheme, the state had used the N500million to put in shape the water pipeline network, linked directly to the taps of all the residents, while the Federal government spent N3.7 billion to execute the project.

The minister said that the federal government water intervention scheme for the rural communities was not limited to Kazaure, but was also carried out in some rural areas of the state.

He announced that 94 water points were also executed in Babura and Yan Kwashi local government areas under the partnership of water sanitation and hygiene programme.

Adamu said a total of 174 water points had been constructed in 23 local government areas under the ministry’s rural water programme, and served as federal government rural water intervention in those rural areas.

Meanwhile, the minister also presented a certificate of Open Defecation Free (ODF) to 14 local government areas of the state in Sule TankarKar and inaugurated a 6km township road which was constructed by the state government about two years ago.