By NAN
The Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, has disclosed that seven states; Bauchi, Delta, Ekiti, Imo, Katsina, Kaduna and Plateau would benefit from the first tier of the World Bank $700 million for specific water projects in their respective states.
Mr Adamu made the disclosure on Thursday at the weekly media briefing organised by the Presidential Communication Team led by President Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesman, Femi Adesina, in Abuja on Thursday.
The minister said the states will access between 50 to 60 million dollars each after meeting the criteria set by the World Bank.
He said: “Some certain criteria were set by the World Bank and us. And the states had to meet these eligible criteria, and the projects were submitted into tier one and tier two.
“Tier one is for those that will get a substantial amount, maybe 50, 60 million dollars for the urban schemes.
“For the P-WASH (Plan – Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) Action Plan, is the rural component and it is going to the states, specifically.
“Some are going as a grant while some of it is going to some specific projects. And like I said, there are eligible criteria that states ought to have met, and it is not all the 36 states.
“There are conditions attached on which this money is going to be disbursed.
“So the whole thing has not been finalised yet, but what we have is an approval in general from the World Bank specifically for this, there’ll be some realignments here and there and that’s something that we’re going to be working on between our ministry, Ministry of Finance and the World Bank.”
Speaking on the activities of his ministry, Mr Adamu mentioned that the federal government is working on 116 ongoing and abandoned water projects across the country.
He however frowned at the abandonment of water projects by some states warning that Abuja would no longer act as ‘Father Christmas’ for state’s who are unwilling to contribute their counterpart funding to projects in their respective domains.
Specifically, the minister stated that the federal government would henceforth contribute not more than 30 per cent of total cost for water projects in states.
He explained that the decision was reached as it has been discovered that many states were not maintaining projects sited in their states.
Mr Adamu narrated how the Bayelsa government locked up a N6 billion Otuoke water project meant to serve 13 communities of 120,000 people because the government claimed it could not afford the N2 or N3 million a month to provide diesel, pay for staff and chemicals.
“I know of two places where the federal government built dams and treatment plants and the states didn’t use them,” Mr Adamu said.
“The state that locked up the water project because they could not afford N3 million is Bayelsa state and the project is Otuoke water supply project.”
The minister said his ministry has successfully completed 533 water projects including 38 irrigation, 458 water supply schemes and 37 dams to boost food production and ensure potable water to citizens.
