We will soon deliver 15 new water works

ALAUSA ALERT, Dec. 30th, '08 - Jan. 18th, '09

Lagos State Water Corporation is one of the existing colonial legacies, which rather than fizzle off, as has been the fate of many public institutions in the country, has been waxing stronger. It has undergone numerous phases of reforms and repositioning, in order to meet the yearning of members of the public for portable water. Provision of portable water for the teeming population of Lagos state, is no doubt a great responsibility and therefore requires adequate research, planning, funding and implementation. The corporation which has gone fully commercial is striding on with its construction of additional water works. Fifteen(15)are presently on, construction of a power plant is in progress, water distribution mains replacement is in progress , dredging of the iju river is moving on a planned, in addition to numerous other activities. Saddled with responsibility of ensuring that the state Government’s vision in this sector is realized, is Engineer Shayo Holloway, General Manager of the corporation. A thorough breed professional who knows his onions, this amiable gentlemen, displayed uncommon confidence when he rubbed minds with Alausa Alert’s Mamud Hassan and Bolaji Ogunbolarin on his mission and plans to ensure that every home is provided with pipe borne water in the not too distance future in Lagos state. In attendance were Dr Taiwo, General Coordinator, Engineer Ijaya, coordinator (distribution) and Engineer Karimu, Coordinator (production).

THE LAST TWO YEARS

In the last two years, we have done things that are time based. We have begun the implementation of metering scheme. The intention is to meter all property in the state for proper accountability in order to greatly enhance water management, distribution and service delivery. By this, water bill will reflect actual consumption. This will eliminate the scenario where consumers don’t pay because they have not received so much water in the last few weeks. Also, power supply is the greatest problem LSWC. Power supply of only 6 hours a day, impedes operation to about 25% and water production is twenty four hours service (24/7). Problem of power supply is a major constraint to our major water works. The current administration has taken the bull by the horn with the construction of 12.15 mega watts dedicated power plant, to provide power supply to major water works at Akute, Iju and Adiyan. I must add that Akute is the extracting station where we extract raw water that is transmitted to Adiyan for treatment with a designed capacity of 70 million gallons per day, from Akute to Iju with 45 million gallons per day capacity. Between Iju and Adiyan, we have installed 115 million gallons per day capacity. All things being equal, the two major water works are responsible for 90% of water consumed in the metropolis.

CHALLENGES

There is no responsibility, most especially in the public sector without its challenges and expectation from members of the public. It is the ability to identify those problems and challenges and develop capability to marshal both human and material resources, backed with good systematic planning, scientific implementation and professional approach, that has helped a lot in overcoming the problem of water delivery in the state. However, it must be acknowledged that some of the problems are still there and being effectively tackled gradually. Such as the inability to quantify water consumption in the state. This has led to the high rate of uncountable water. It is very painful when you produce so much water with a great effort, without detailed information about who is getting what and in what quantity. Also power supply is our greatest challenge because there is a nexus between power and water supply. Since power is needed to supply water, but with current regular power failure, your operational efficiency is poor and water service is a 24 hour service but without adequate power there is little you can do and there is a limit available Generators can perform because of operational cost. Finally poor water conservation habit of our people, especially among domestic users, is one of the problems we are addressing. The construction of 32 mini-micro water works all over the state to support the main water works and with the completion of dedicated power line by December, we can constantly pump water for distribution twenty fours a day. This will solve water problem in the state and people will no longer need suction pumps to pull water into underground tanks.

ADDITIONAL WATERWORKS

To improve on the existing water supply and delivery in the state, Government has awarded the contract for additional 15 mini water works with a capacity of 2 million gallons per day and these are to be completed before the end of the year. With this in place, water supply will improve tremendously in the urban, sub- urban and rural areas of the state and ameliorate water problem in entire LAGOS

PARTNERSHIP WITH PRIVATE SECTOR

As part of the effort to meet the millennium development goals (MDGs), the government under Public Private Partnership scheme intends to construct 50 million gallons per day (MGD) water works at ODOMOLA EPE, this will take care of EPE, LEKKI corridor down to V.I and ADIYAN water works, as these two will now be able to concentrate on service to the LAGOS mainland and urban areas.

WORLD BANK INVOLVMENT

We are currently executing WORLD BANK projects under that scheme. We will construct two 2 million gallons per day water works at APONGBON and ALEXANDER road in IKOYI, that will supplement the IKOYI water works on club road. Another beneficiary of the world bank water project is the Alausa mini water works, built over twenty years ago when the population was small. Consequent upon the population growth, it has become important it goes for rehabilitation under the world bank project. It will be rehabilitated to 20 mgd to cater for Alausa and environs. Isheri-Oke water project has been advertised in the national newspapers and construction will take off any moment from now while Coker-Aguda is on-going. This will take care of Orile-Iganmu up to Aguda. Ikate water works is another beneficiary. When completed, Surulere with high population density will benefit from 3 mini water works, Aguda, Stadium and Orile. It should be noted that surulere is also supplied by Iju and Adiyan through western avenue and Oshodi . By the end of this year water delivery will significantly improve and rehabilitation of Iju and Adiyan will be done in phases to minimize disruption of services to the metropolis.

PUBLIC ATTITUDE TO WATER MANAGEMENT

We have embarked on aggressive public enlightenment to let people know what water is not a social thing but economic, so that member can cultivate the right attitude of water management and don’t just see it as a social good only, but also of economic importance that requires good usage and management. It is common for people to say water everywhere , but little to drink. 70% of the earth surface is water but only 3% is good for human consumption, the rest is salt. Water resources, is not unlimited and therefore a need for change in public mindset to see water as a resource that should be treated well and guarded as economic good and not to be wasted. One of the major problems of LSWC today is water wastage. This is due to the belief that water is free and to man, anything that is free is wasteful; we should be concerned about the limited status of water resources. To curb this wastage, there is a plan to meter properties in the entire metropolis and with that, people will be conservative in their water usage. It is sad that we lose 45%of produced water within consumers premises through leaking taps, bad water closet, burst pipes and unscrupulous attitude of local plumber s. attitudinal change is imperative now that in this millennium, there will be reduction in clean water due to climatic change & human actions that could lead to conflict between nature and man because existing available 3% of consumable water, is dwindling due to over extraction, wastage and climatic change.

WATER PROBLEM IN SOME AREAS

We are trying to move into 21st century and the major responsibility is to provide portable water into properties connected from mains. Public fountain is a major source of water wastage. We have some areas with mains but then again are problems of demand and supply. The power supply has affected production, but with the independent power project, the water supply will be resuscitated. But in areas where there are no mains, there is a plan to extend mains to them under the WORLD BANK project and contractors have been selected for rehabilitation of distribution mains in IKEJA and OSHODI and they will soon move to site. Same will apply to LAGOS ISLAND where some pipes were laid over 80 years ago. Many of these pipes will be relayed and expanded to areas that don’t have service

GRASSROOT SERVICES

Our structure is decentralized to the level that we divided the state into 10 operational areas and zone. Each zone has a zonal manager, consumer and production heads. This process is to allow the consumer easy access to our facilities and there can approach any of the nearest service zones if they have any complaint or problem. And also as part of our efforts in improving efficiency and delivery system, we are working in tandem with some NGO’S to create awareness this is coupled with regular consumer’s interactive forum held in each of the zones. Under this arrangement, we always have meetings with local leaders to sensitize them on water management and importance of payment of water rates as this is crucial to sustain the system, because government spends so much on water provision and facilities maintenance. It should be noted that as part of our efforts to improve delivery; Ikeja, Dolphin and Onikan are also up for upgrading under the world bank project, to meet the demand of a population of about 16 million people and the strain on the existing infrastructure is enormous.

BILLING SYSTEM

Under the current arrangement, we have records/data of when particular property is connected or disconnected and when a property is disconnected, we reconcile the bills to stop. Because the area is not supplied and should not get bills. Continuous efforts are going to bring sanity to the system. It is the aim of this administration to provide water to the frontage of every house in the state.

MESSAGE TO CONSUMERS

Very soon they will see tremendous improvement in water delivery when the 15 water works are completed. And also they should be conservative with water, because water conservation is very important and public should endeavor to pay water bills promptly.