20yrs after, Mada Water Works gets attention

Keffi, Akwanga, Garaku, Sabon Gida and environs, spanning two zones of Nasarawa-West and Nasarawa-North, on four major roads of Lafia-Akwanga, Akwanga-Jos, Akwanga-Wamba, Akwanga-Keffi, were served potable drinking water through the channels, taking water straight from Mada Water Works.
Today, the water works cannot produce half of its installed water capacity. Meanwhile, the populations of these urban centres and their environs have risen, with growing need for domestic water.
Daily Trust can report that in Keffi, for instance, the establishment of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), the Nasarawa State University, Keffi (NSUK), and Nasarawa State School of Health (NSCH), as well as other institutions that have sprung up with the creation of Nasarawa from the old Plateau State, have increased the water requirement of the area.
The dramatic cut in the production and supply capacity from the water works has been felt in Keffi, more than elsewhere because of the population increase there. Only on February 25, 2013, thousands of students, some of them new entrants then, protested against a cut in water supply. Earlier, in 2011, students of NSUK protested against government’s failure to provide them water.
Akwanga, where tertiary institutions including private ones are springing up, attracting a surge in population – the effect of the cut in the capacity of production and supply from Mada Water Works is serious, too.  
In much of Nasarawa State, billions of naira were sunk into projects, including on Mada Water Works, to give the people water, but the taps remain dry.
Last week, the current administration of Umaru Tanko Al-Makura decided to face the problem. The Nasarawa State Water Board entered into a N600 million contract with three companies to carry out major repair works on the ailing water works.
Engr. Simon Ibi, Acting General Manager of the board told Daily Trust that Al-Makura approved the contract as part of the administration’s overall project to tackle problem of water shortage in urban and rural areas.
He said the acting chairman of the board, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, signed the contract on behalf of the government, with three contractors, namely, Pianampianti Nigeria Limited, Jos Hansen and Sophne Nigeria, and Power Save Engineering Limited.
Engr. Ibi said the project entails the replacement of obsolete equipment with new ones, and carrying out of general repairs to make the water works to supply 10 million gallons of water a day to Keffi, Akwanga, Gudi, Garaku, Sabon Gida and environs.
“The water works was constructed in 1995 to provide 10 million gallons of water per day. But the equipments have gone bad and can hardly perform at 50 percent. The contract is to restore that capacity and strengthen the supply at full performance,” Engr. Ibi said.
The water works, constructed along Gudi River in Akwanga, with financial support from African Development Bank (ADB), was commissioned by the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha on Wednesday, May 22, 1996.
This is just as a Ukrainian firm has been contracted by the administration to dam the Amba River in Lafia, to strengthen water production and supply to the state capital. Al-Makura and the management of Stroy Allan’s Construction Company of Ukraine, signed a Memorundum of Understanding (MOU) on this project, recently.
Related to this, the acting manager said water supply in all other major urban areas has stabilised and remain so for over two years now.
He said that the provision of water production imputs, including chemicals and diesel, to run the alternative power plants has been regular in the past two year.
Engr. Ibi named the areas with steady water supply as Lafia, the state capital, Nasarawa-Eggon, Doma, and Keana.
“During this period, we have had no major complaints coming from these urban centres because supply is steady and has remained so,” he said.