Tunde Akanbi, Ilorin.
President of the Senate, Doctor Bukola Saraki on Wednesday flagged off the N472m rehabilitation of the Sobi Dam water works that would produce 2million liters of water per day.
The dam which was constructed about three (3) decades ago is expected to boost water supply to some communities in Ilorin East, Ilorin South and Moro local government areas of the state including the Sobi Cantonment of the Nigerian Army.
Speaking at the ceremony the Director General of Abubakar Bukola Saraki (ABS) constituency office, Alhaji Musa Abdulahi who represented the senate President stated that it was being undertaken to signal another dividend of democracy and improve the socio-economic wellbeing of the citizen.
He charged the beneficiaries to guard the project and cooperate effectively with those assigned for the rehabilitation.
The water works which has been has been operating on twenty five percent (25%) efficiency in the last 15 years has a completion period of 6months.
The Director General reiterated that the need for its rehabilitation was borne out of a desire for higher efficiency for the both domestic and industrial benefits of the constituents and Kwarans at large.
Shortly before the project was handed over to the contractor by the Managing Director of Lower Niger River Basin, Engineer Aremu Adeniyi, which is the MDA in charge of the project, the Director General, disclosed that the Senate President is committed to the welfare of his constituents and ready to bring an end to problems arising from the quality and quantity of water supply through the rehabilitation of old and construction of new surface and underground waterworks.
Alhaji Abdulahi said there were about 200 ongoing constituency projects of the Senate President that includes more than twenty communal road projects that are eighty percent (80%) completed and will be commissioned soon, across the four local governments that make up the Kwara Central Senatorial District.
He assured Kwarans of the completion of all the projects being facilitated by the Senate President and that more of such people oriented projects are in the pipeline.
In his remarks, the Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Water Resources, Hon. Ali Bahago Ahman Pategi, who was present at the flag off event, disclosed that the National Assembly under the Chairmanship of Senator Bukola Saraki wants to discourage the incessant digging of boreholes but invest more on water dam construction and reticulation in order to ensure that every household in the country has access to healthy and drinkable water.
He went further by appreciating the Senate President for his interest in ensuring monumental projects are captured for Kwarans in the 2018 national budget.
According to him “He is indeed a responsible and responsive leader and blessing to Kwara state”.
After the project was handed over to the contractor by the Lower Niger River Basin and the site possessed by the constituency office of the Senate President, the CEO of Deco Nigeria Ltd, made it known that all the equipment to be used for the project are to be imported from Germany and assured that the project will be hundred percent completed in 6 months.
After the flag off of Sobi Dam, the constituency office of the Senate President also had an inspection tour to the nearly completed Agba Dam waterworks expansion site, a multimillion naira project which was flagged off last year. The inspection team was impressed by the level of works done on the dam and expressed optimism that in the next few months, water will run on every household in Ilorin metropolis.
