FG drills 14 solar powered boreholes to tackle water scarcity, coronavirus spread in Katsina

The Federal Ministry Of Water Resources has drilled 14 solar-powered boreholes across nine Local Government Areas in Katsina State.

This according to the government is to address the water shortage and reduce the spread of COVID-19 among people in the benefiting communities.

The Northwest Zonal Coordinator of the project, Sanusi Mai-Afu during the training on operation and maintenance of the water supply facilities which were constructed under the National Wash Response to COVID-19 projects disclosed this.

Mai-Afu stressed the need for the benefiting communities to sustain the project and called on them to come together and contribute to the process of operation in order to maintain the facilities.

He said in the Northwest alone, the project covers Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, and Kaduna States adding that 75 percent of diseases are water-related.

“The facilities are now no longer the property of either the Federal or the Governments,” he added.

Earlier in his welcome address, the Executive Director of Katsina Rural, Urban Water Supply Scheme Agency (RUWASSA), Aminu Dayyabu Safana commended the effort of the Federal Ministry Of Water Resources for drilling the new boreholes to better the lives and enhance the health status of Katsina people.

He, however, called on the beneficiaries to form community committees aimed at saving all funds generated from the water users in their respective communities in order to sustain and maintain the facilities constructed.

One of the facilities managers, Malam Sanusi Abdullahi Kankara described the project as a welcome development and one that has come at the right time when people in his community are severely facing water scarcity.

In March, this year, Katsina State Government said it’s laying a solid foundation to restore the entire water sector in the state.

The multi-billion naira water project was aimed at covering 70 percent of the Katsina population with good, healthy, and portable drinking water as well as other domestic purposes.