Community Petitions NDDC Over Abandoned N40m Water Project

• Community Petitions NDDC Over Abandoned N40m Water Project

The indigenes of the Ekwuoma community in Ika North-East Local Government Area of Delta State have petitioned the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission over the abandoned N40m water project in the area.

The leaders of the community disclosed that the project was initiated in 2007 by the NDDC and intended to serve as a source of portable water for the residents but it was abandoned midway by the NDDC’s contractor.

In a petition addressed to the Managing Director, Niger Delta Development Commission and made available to journalists on Friday in Asaba, the community called on the Commission and its Managing Director to urgently revisit the project.

The petition dated February 7, 2019, titled, ‘Uncompleted And Abandoned N40m NDDC Solar Water Project In Ekwuoma, Ika North East LGA, Delta State’, was signed by the traditional ruler, HRH, Samuel Chukwujindu and President – General, Ekwuoma Progressive Union, Chief Augustine Nwokolo, on behalf of their people.

They lamented that their people had been subjected to all year round pains of sourcing water for domestic use from unsafe sources.

The petitioners stressed that the financial and health implications of purchasing water from ‘Orogodo stream’ in Agbor, of about 10km away for drinking and cooking was a great burden on the people particularly during the dry season.

The petitioners further noted that they found it quite puzzling that while an individual had successfully executed private borehole project in the town, a Federal Government agency like NDDC was unable to accomplish same feat for use by the residents.

The petition read in part: “The water project at Idumute in Ekwuoma, which was put at N40m as of 2007 prevailing market price, was started same year and work on it progressed till 2008 but curiously, it was left uncompleted and abandoned ever since by the contractor. No water came out from it, not even a drop.”

When our correspondent visited the abandoned site, the overhead water storage had been overgrown with shrubs and weeds.