Issues
Dry Taps Set To Flow Again In Rivers State
In continuation of its unwa vering commitment to improve the living standards of Rivers people and prepare every sector in the State to be fully ready to adapt to the millennial challenges of a fast changing global society, the Rivers State Government, on August 31st, 2020, signed contracts for the rehabilitation and upgrading of water supply for Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor Local Government Areas.
It has been universally acknowledged that water is at the core of sustainable development and is critical for socio-economic development, healthy ecosystems and for human survival itself.
It is vital for reducing the global burden of disease and improving the health, welfare and productivity of populations. Water is a finite and irreplaceable resource in time and space and it is only available if well managed.
Where water is reliably available, economic opportunities are enhanced. Where water is unreliable or of inadequate quality, or where water-related hazards are present, there will be drags on growth.
Today, due to rapid population growth, economic development and other challenges that impact the natural resources, the value of water has increased dramatically and so, this project, which is expected to receive funding from the African Development Bank (AfDB), will not only upgrade 496 kilometers of pipeline which will produce 330,000 cubic metres of potable water per day, it will equally create over 1,200 direct jobs and 5,000 indirect jobs for Rivers people.
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Port Harcourt Water Corporation (PHWC), Chief Ibibia Walter, signed on behalf of the Rivers State Government, while for the consortium of the three project contractors, Chen Kangle signed for CGC Nigeria limited, Yang Gengqi for Top International Engineering Corporation and Iskandar Taslakian signed for Mothercat Limited.
The need for a project of this nature and magnitude to be undertaken at a time like this cannot be over emphasised. Indeed, one existential situation which many Rivers people have taken for granted is the fact that the Water Supply and Sanitation infrastructure in the State has been in poor and pathetic conditions for a long time, caused by years of neglect as well as decayed and limited pipe network.
The population of the State has also grown far beyond the existing old PWD initiated forty-year old network, with no new investment on the network over time and this has further been stretched by the urban centre which used to be the Old Port Harcourt Township, Diobu, and Borikiri now extended into most of Obio/Akpor LGA, thus expanding the frontiers of the capital territory.
It has been said and also true that, “The type of access, quantum of water supply and quality of sanitation services available, determines the quality of life as well as health of the people and the potential for poverty alleviation”.
In Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor LGAs, water is either privately sourced or bought from water vendors (mai-ruwa) at very exorbitant rates with doubtful quality.
Realising that there is a lot of potential to produce sufficient water in the State due to a good recharge from our aquifers, yet the current production is not sufficient to meet the demand and spread of the city, the administration of Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike keyed into the Urban Water Sector Reform and Port Harcourt Water Supply and Sanitation Project, to address this very heavy loss of the distribution network efficiency, poor quality of water supply and sanitation services.
The scope and benefits of this water project are quite impressive and it will also deliver the following:
(i) Ensure that the existing abundant water resources of the State are provided in a sustainable and affordable manner;
(ii) Improve the overall efficiency and strengthen the institutions to deliver services effectively whilst maintaining standards in terms of quality and quantity;
(iii) Promote the fact that water is both an economic good as it is a social good by encouraging and sensitizing customers to now pay for water to ensure the sustainability of the service for the future.
The infrastructure support components of this project aim at: fully rehabilitating and expanding the Port Harcourt water supply system and equally integrating environmental, climate change and green growth principles to ensure long-term sustainability of the infrastructure.
Overall Sanitation Facilities will also be greatly improved with the provision of comprehensive sanitation structures in markets and motor parks, including toilets/bathrooms (with separate compartments for men and women), hand washing facilities, and treatment facilities (septic tanks and biodigestors).
New facilities will also be constructed at 23 markets, rehabilitated and expanded facilities will be provided at eight major motor parks, six slaughter houses have also been earmarked to receive facelifts with new hygienic and standardized abbatoir upgrades and the peculiar nature of our waterfronts, which have presented considerable sanitation challenges over the years, will be
addressed with new and modern facilities.
The construction of a pilot sewage/solid management system at Eagle Island, will be undertaken, as part of the Sanitation and Waste Water Management Plan under Component 3, and this will be complemented with an estimated 36 km network-based waste system with a treatment capacity of 1000m3.
Hygiene and Sanitation behavioural Changes across all sectors will be brought about through public campaign carried out together with the Rivers State Primary Health Care Management Board, Ministry of Education and the Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor LGAs, coordinated under an overall theme of “healthy city” or “clean and proud” or similar).
One of the most attractive and eagerly anticipated possibilities for Rivers people is the job creation capacity of this project which will open up exciting and very lucrative opportunities for Small-scale, Public Private Partnerships in the provision of public sanitation facilities.
With the uninterrupted flow of potable water, the management of the public sanitation facilities established under the project, will be outsourced to Small and Medium-scale Enterprises, as well as willing individuals in the form of management contracts, disposal and evacuation services and other similar arrangements. This will be undertaken in collaboration with the Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor LGAs (who will assume ownership of assets) and the Ministry of Women Affairs whose mandate and experience includes the promotion of women entrepreneurs.
The Port Harcourt Sanitation and Waste Water Management subcomponent will develop a comprehensive and integrated sanitation master plan, for sewage, solid wastes management and the devastating challenge of flood control and in line with the provisions of the Nigeria Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Act Cap E12 LFN 2004, the AfDB’s Integrated Safeguard System (ISS) as well as the World Bank’s Operational Policies (OP). An ESIA has already been undertaken by the State Government through the Port Harcourt Water Supply Project to update the Report disclosed in 2013 and a final Draft of the Report has been completed.
Another futuristic attraction of this project is the preparation and updating of a Resettlement Action Plan in accordance with African Development Bank Operational Safeguard (OS2) and the World Bank Operational Policy (OP 4.12). This plan has already outlined procedures that the project proponent will follow and the actions to be taken to mitigate adverse effects, compensate losses where necessary and provide developmental benefits to Persons Affected by the Project (PAP), and communities there-from.
Governor Wike, speaking during the contract signing formalities, urged the contractors to mobilise to site preparatory for the expected project flag-off on the 1st of October, 2020.
“Let me warn, in Rivers State, we do not compromise with quality of work viz-a-viz timely delivery of contracts. I shall be visiting all project sites unannounced, to monitor progress and compliance with specification.
“I am requesting the African Development Bank (AfDB) that will finance the project to do so with 100 per cent cost of net of taxes. The COVID-19 pandemic presented huge challenges, as the accruable revenues both to Federal Statutory Allocation and Internally Generated Revenue has dropped.
“The Commissioner of Water Resources and Rural Development and the Managing Director of Port Harcourt Water Corporation should engage AfDB with the view to get the Bank to finance 100 percent of the cost of the project net of taxes.
“I am aware that the loan closing date is April 2021. I am directing the commissioner and the managing director to submit application to the Federal Ministry of Finance and AfDB to extend the duration of the loan by two years to enable full implementation of all components of the urban water sector reform.
“They should further engage AfDB with a view of restoring the works at Trans-Amadi, Abuloma, Woji and Elelenwo regrettably cancelled by other Development Partners, “ he stated.
The Rivers State Governor, while assuring that he would not hesitate to fully implement the PHWC restructuring and organisational build-out report, also pointed out that his administration has opened a new phase of commitment to reposition water supply services across the state and affirmed that, through the project, thousands of Rivers people would be engaged directly and indirectly throughout the life span of the project, with the multiplier effect filtering into other communities as expansion spreads across the state.
Commissioner for Water Resources and Rural Development, Dr. Tamunosisi Gogo-Jaja, said the project would have four new devices reservoirs located at Rumuola, Diobu, Moscow and Borikiri in Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor, adding that there would be eight elevated tanks with carrying capacity of about 1000 to 1500 cubic meters of water and about 17 boreholes in about six cluster areas connected to water treatment plants, amongst other functional and operational structures.
The Commissioner, who noted that the Rivers State Government has taken a vigorous step in addressing the challenges of providing potable water supply and sanitation in Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor Local Government Areas through the launching of the Port Harcourt Water Supply and Sanitation Project (PHWSSP) in April, 2016, declared that the project which is executed with credit facility provided by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the International Development Association (World Bank) has helped to improve service delivery to over 2 million residents in these areas.
“Expectedly, the water from this project will be potable, environmentally friendly and steady when the project is completed. It will also be provided from a controlled transportation of water to the various households within the project area,” Gogo-Jaja noted.
He confidently expressed joy and gratitude that Governor Nyesom Wike, who has always believed in the popular maxim that ‘water is life’, has ensured that the project comes to fruition without any external influence on the Bidding and Procurement Process.
The Managing Director of Port Harcourt Water Corporation, Chief Ibibia Walter, said his team worked assiduously within eight months to secure the contractors trusted to execute the project and thanked Governor Wike for his commitment to ensure that rural dwellers access potable water in the State.
Speaking for CGC Nigeria limited, Chen Kangle who expressed gratitude to the Governor for the trust in his company to handle the projects, assured of timely delivery. Yang Gengqi who spoke for the Top International Engineering Corporation said they have been in Nigeria since 2017 and are confident to deliver a quality project, while for Mothercat Limited, Iskandar Taslakian, pledged to engage indigenous workers on their sites.
With the signing of the rehabilitation and upgrading of water supply project for Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor capital territory areas, Governor Nyesom Wike has once again astounded his detractors and naysayers with his astute administrative and visionary leadership acumen, by providing holistic governance which accommodates all sectors of the society and ensures that the delivery of social welfare and infrastructural dividends are not only comprehensive but have been equally designed and tailored in anticipation of the unfolding challenges and impact of globalization on an oil-rich state like Rivers State.
Nsirim is the Commissioner for Information and Communications, Rivers State.
Paulinus Nsirim
This is an open letter to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike.
Your Excellency,
Sir, ordinarily, I would not be writing an open letter to you, but like a wise man once said, “Silence would be Treason.” So I prefer to stay alive than face the consequences of silence in the face of crime. With each passing day, and as the socio-political tides continue to turn, it has become more pertinent that more people speak up in a concerted MANNER to prevent the death of our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as we appear to be, in the words of W. B. Yeats, “turning and turning in the widening gyre” heading for an end where the falcon will no longer hear the falconer
It is unfortunate that since losing control of the Federal Government, with the loss of President Goodluck Jonathan at the poll in 2015, our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has continued on a downward spiral. It is much more painful, that where it is expected that leaders within the party should rise to the challenge and put an end to this decline of our great party, some have instead taken up roles as its undertaker.
It will be hypocritical to claim aloofness to what I believe is your grouse with the PDP and I am not a hypocrite. It will be uncharitable on my part to discountenance the role you have played in strengthening the PDP from 2015 up until the last Presidential primaries of the party. It is my belief that your grouse against certain members of the party who you perceived worked against the party and abandoned it in 2015 and then came around much later to take control of the party, is justified. Also know that your decision to remain in the Party and stifle its progress on the other hand, as a sort of payback, stands condemned. For a man of your pedigree and stature, it is a dishonorable act, highly dishonorable and stands as testimony against all you claim to stand for.
At least, it can be argued that those who you hold this grudge against, abandoned the party completely and did not sit back while actively working to destroy it from within. But what then can be the argument on your own part, seeing that those you are currently working with against your party are the same people who set in motion, and executed surgically, the plans that not only ended our Party’s leadership at the centre, but ended up dislodging the first Niger Deltan to occupy Aso Rock as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Is this not akin to “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face?” That will be worse than folly. Let us not throw away the baby with the bath water because we do not like the soap used in bathing the baby. It will be a grave mistake.
Honourable Minister, sir, it is rather unfortunate that of all people, you have also decided to play the role of an undertaker not only for our party, but for our dear Rivers State.
I will like to take you down memory lane a little. Let me remind you of your emergence as Guber candidate of the PDP in Rivers State, against all fairness and justice in 2014. You will remember that despite the reality being that you as an Ikwerre man was poised to replace a fellow Ikwerre man in Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi in our multiethnic state, Rivers people overwhelmingly stood by you and pushed for your emergence as Executive Governor of Rivers State in 2015. I dare say that your popularity in the entire Niger Delta region was at an all-time high at this point.
I want you to understand why you were loved across board leading to your eventual emergence as Governor of Rivers State in 2015; it was because when it looked like all were against the second term ambitions of the first Niger Delta man to emerge as President of Nigeria, you became not just a pillar but a beacon of resistance by standing for Goodluck Jonathan. Rivers people, as grateful and rewarding as they can be, paid you back by ensuring your electoral victory against the incumbent All Progressives Congress (APC) led by your predecessor. On your emergence, where there were second term Governors in the region, you, a first term Governor, was seen by the people as not just the leader of the PDP, but the leader of the entire Niger Delta region. You earned it, and no one could dispute it.
In 2019, when your re-election bid was being challenged ferociously, Rivers people once again stood solidly behind you. Many were killed in the process of defending your votes. Do you remember Dr. Ferry Gberegbe that was shot and killed while trying to protect your votes in Khana Local Government Area? There are many more unnamed and unrecognised sons and daughters of Rivers State who sacrificed their lives so that you could emerge as a second term Governor of Rivers State.
In 2022/23, Honourable Minister, you oversaw a party primary across board that saw some candidates imprisoned and internal party democracy jettisoned for your wishes, leading to the emergence of flag bearers of our party all singlehandedly picked by you. You have on more than one occasion publicly stated that you paid for all their forms. Even those shortchanged in this process licked their wounds and continued to play their roles as party members to ensure the success of the party at all levels. In what will go down as one of the most keenly contested elections in recent Rivers history, with formidable candidates like Senator Magnus Abe of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr Tonye Cole of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the vibrant youth driven Labour Party (LP), PDP emerged victorious across board except for Phalga Constituency 1 that was lost to the Labour Party. (Not that you did not loose in some other LGA’s but let’s stick to the official figures declared by INEC).
It begs the question, why then do you want to burn down Rivers State, when everyone who now holds political office emerged through a process designed and endorsed by you? Is it that you do not care about Rivers people and you are all about yourself? If so, I am forced to believe that those around you are not telling you the truth. The truth being that in a state where your words were law; where houses and businesses could be demolished or closed down without any recourse to legalities, where Executive Orders could be deployed to stifle the opposition, that your popularity is now at an all-time low. Probably because they are afraid of you, or of losing the benefits they gain from you, they fail to tell you that what you might perceive as a battle against your successor, has slowly but gradually degenerating into a battle against Rivers State and Rivers people. You know, there is a popular saying that, a man can cook for the community and the community will finish the food, but when a community decides to cook for one man, the reverse is the case.
LEAVE FUBARA ALONE
You have gone on and on about being betrayed by Governor Siminalayi Fubara. You point fingers forgetting that some of those same fingers quick to spot betrayals point straight back at you. It is not Governor Fubara that has betrayed the PDP by working against it in the just concluded General Election, and working with the opposition at the State and Federal level to destabilise the party. It is you, Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that betrayed Rivers people by instigating a political crisis with propensity to escalate ethnic tensions in Rivers State. It is you Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that has declared himself God over all in Rivers State and has no qualms with burning the state to the ground to prove a point. It is you Honourable Minister. It is you Honourable Minister who told the world that the APC was a cancer and you can never support a cancerous party. It is you Honourable Minister who ended up facilitating the emergence of the same “cancerous” APC that has accelerated the economic decline of this country and further impoverished our people with no remorse. All so you can be a Minister of the Federal Capital Territory? The lack of self awareness is gobsmacking.
Some days back I came across a video where you talked about death and how you do not cry when you hear about the death of some people because you have no idea what might have caused it considering many a politician swear “over dead bodies” and still go back on their words. Those words made me think, and I could see the reason behind them. You see, in chosing to be God in the affairs of Rivers people, you have closed your eyes and ears to reason; you see nothing and hear nothing that can cause you to rethink on the path you have chosen. In your quest to “show Fubara” you have unwittingly united a vast majority of Rivers people behind him, so much that even those who despised him because of you, now like or love him, because of you too. In your scheming, I will advise you not to forget that “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.
Note that the war which you have or are waging against Governor Fubara, has gone beyond being merely political as you might see in your minds eye. It is now one that, fortunately for some and unfortunately for others, has evolved into a war against Rivers people. It is good to point out that no one has taken a stand against Rivers people and won. No one has gone against God and won. In your defiant characteristic manner, it will be unfortunate if you believe your own hubris and that of those around you on the possibility of you being the first to successfully go against Rivers people. It will be a needless gamble; one where if you win you create more enemies for yourself than you can withstand on your political journey, and if you lose, your legacy becomes an inglorious and irredeemable one in Rivers State, the Niger Delta, and Nigeria at large. For your sake as regards posterity, it is my greatest wish that you have a moment of sobriety and a deep reflection and introspection on this path you have chosen.
Honourable Minister, sir, what is left of your legacy is on the brink of being completely desecrated and relegated to the dustbin of our political history, and it will be a sad end to what I will say has been a wonderful political career that many can only dream of. The ball is in your court, and may God Almighty have mercy on us all and forgive us for our shortcomings.
Gabriel Baritulem Pidomson
Dr Pidomson is former Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt and former member, Rivers State House of Assembly.
In 2015, I made a conscious decision to invest my financial resources, my time, and energy into supporting Nyesom Wike’s gubernatorial campaign. I poured my heart and soul into ensuring Nyesom Wike emerged victorious even at the risk of my personal safety.
Again in 2019, I doubled down on my commitment. I invested a significant amount of money to procure campaign outfits for all twenty-three Local Governments Areas of Rivers State. I spared no expense in supplementing Wike’s election efforts in my own local government, and once again putting myself at great risk to safeguard the fairness and transparency of the electoral process.
However, despite my unwavering loyalty and sacrifices, I found myself abandoned and forgotten by Wike. Throughout his eight-year tenure, he failed to acknowledge my contributions or fulfill his promises and agreements. Even as a former Deputy Governor, Wike denied me my severance benefit.
My investment in Wike’s governorship was not just financial – it was a commitment of passion, dedication, and belief in a better future for Rivers State. Yet, his leadership style of dishonesty, greed, drunkenness and rash abuse of senior citizens brought me nothing but disappointment, misery and losses.
By the grace of God, today I speak not as a victim, but as a hero. I have accepted my losses, and I have moved on. And as I reflect on my experience, I cannot help but urge Wike to do the same and allow peace and development to reign in Rivers State.
Nyesom Wike, when you speak of investing in Governor Sim Fubara’s election, remember those like me who also invested in you. Remember the sacrifices I made, the risks I took, and the promises and agreements you left unfulfilled.
It is time for you, Wike, to let go of the past and allow Governor Sim Fubara the breathing space he needs to lead Rivers State forward. Allow him to focus on the challenges of good governance and the aspirations of the people. Spare him these unwarranted and ill-conceived political manoeuvrings founded on personal agenda and not for general good of Rivers State and her people.
I may have lost my investment on Wike, but I have not lost hope in the future of Rivers State. And together, we will continue to strive for a brighter tomorrow.
Long Live the Governor to Rivers State, Sir Siminialayi Fubara!
Long Live the Good People of Rivers State!!
Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!!
Engr Ikuru is former Deputy Governor of Rivers State.
Tele Ikuru
