From Uche Uche, Damaturu
Yobe state government has met its target of increasing the level of water and sanitation by the year 2013 with water supply coverage estimated to be about 67% and 66% for urban and rural areas respectively, while sanitation coverage is 62% for both urban and rural settlements.
This shows that an average of 66% or 161.8 million of the state population now have access to safe or improved drinking water sources, which is 1% increase above the state target of 65% coverage by the year 2013.
To achieve this, according to the commissioner in the Ministry of Water Resources, Alh. Sidi Karasuwa, the ministry designated 20 towns as urban and semi-urban centers, in order to determine the type of water supply facilities to be provided so that through the rural water Supply and Sanitation Agency, the rural areas would be provided with portable water supply and sanitation.
The commissioner added that the ministry also put in place a strategist plan and targets for implementation, through collation of a comprehensive data at the rural areas which would greatly facilitate in determining the ‘gap and capacity’ to achieve the implementation by increasing the supply level to 65% by the end of 2013.
In order to overcome the water supply problems in the state capital, Damaturu, the state government had completely taken over the completion of the abandoned Damaturu Water Supply Project from the federal government and awarded the contract for the Well Field A and Service area, which have the capacity of 6mgln of water underground and 1mgln overhead tank for distribution, at the cost of N1.145 billion.
