SANUSI MAIKUDI, the Managing Director of Kaduna State Water Corporation (KADSWAC), said that the Corporation has recorded the highest cost recovery than any water agency in the country. However, he aims to improve on KADSWAC’s record, as he explains in this interview.
Last Sunday, the ‘’World Water Day’’ was celebrated and this year’s theme was ‘’Water and Climate Change.’’ What is the significance of this theme to Kaduna State especially?
Scientists have reviewed the average global temperature over a time period and discovered that the world has been getting warmer; it is called global warming. The average annual temperature has been rising steadily due to human activities which erode the ozone layer. This erosion has induced changes in the environment, which affect the quality and quantity of water available to mankind. So, the United Nations set aside the 22nd of March every year to call the attention of the international community, nation states, citizens, civil societies to the centrality of water to human existence and as a driver of development. Each year, they select a theme to focus upon. Last year, it was ‘’Leave No One Behind,’’ implying that water supply should be available to everybody as a right. Now, climate change has affected the period of rainfall, the intensity and the spread and the vegetation cover; desert encroachment is increasing yearly. Places that used to have sustainable rainfall have become arid, and it has induced migration to areas where there is water. And there are associated issues like forced migration, conflicts and other vices.
In Kaduna State, there is a sector implementation plan for WASH, the acronym means Water, Sanitation and Hygiene. This is part of the Millennium Development Goal(MDG), number 6 of the United Nations. Kaduna State under the Governorship of Malam Nasir El-Rufai, has articulated a Sector Implementation Plan which has three elements. One is water, the second is sustainable sanitation and the third is hygiene. We have a well articulated policy in place. We have water supply and sanitation law. With this framework, there are nine MDAs charged with the responsibility of delivering these services. We have the Kaduna State Water Corporation that supplies water to the urban settlements of the State. We have Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASSA) that supplies water to rural communities. We have the Kaduna Environmental Protection Agency (KEPA). All three entities are being supervised by the Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Public Works and Infrastructure. In addition, Government has been pumping money to the water sector. For instance, the upgrading of the Zaria water supply from 60 million to 210 million per day, is unparalleled. It’s more than 300%.
Beyond the Zaria project which has been well documented and celebrated in the past few years, would you say that Kaduna State has met its water requirements as a State of about ten million residents?
No, we don’t have optimum water supply because the UNICEF and UNESCO par capita water supply should be an average of 120 litres, which is par person per day. But our production capacity, urbanization and population explosion have stretched what we have on the ground. But the Government is committed, it has a development action plan to analyse the gap and meet it. We are now on the drawing board and doing two things. One is that the existing water treatment plants which are about 610 million litres capacity per day, must be retrofitted. That is, old machines and old pumps are being replaced with ultramodern ones and the implementation has reached an advanced stage. Another one is the greater Kaduna metropolitan water supply expansion and sanitation project, which we are undertaking in partnership with development organizations and other stakeholders. So, we have a gap, we are aware of it, and systematic action is being taken to bridge the gap.
How are you managing the little water resources that you have? You will agree that there is a lot of waste both in processing and by end users. What are you doing in terms of sensitization or policy to mitigate this?
The water that is being wasted is called non-revenue water. Every plant has an installation capacity. When you operate, a reading of what you produce, the time it takes, the amount of water you deliver to people and the bills you generated, will guide you to know how much water has been produced. The gap between what you produce and what you ultimately bill is called non-revenue water. Ours is very high and this is because our underground infrastructure is very aged. They were laid down around 1926 and 1927, and they were made of asbestos cement fibre. Technically, they were supposed to serve for only 40 years. Since 1969, they are due for replacement but most of them have not been replaced. But we are very grateful to God and to our leader, the Governor. Under the Kaduna Urban Renewal Project, the opportunity has come, and we are taking a maximum advantage of that to replace the entire old pipes network within the city centre.
Most consumers do not like paying their water bills, how are you handling this problem?
This is a major area of concern; a lot of people don’t pay their water bills. The collection average was just 28% in 2018. We billed people N3,936,000,000. Only N826,000,000 was paid. The unpaid amount for last year only was N2,113,000,000 which is very bad. We were only able to recollect 45% of our cost recovery, although we are the highest in the country. No other state has recovered up to 20%, we did 45%. But for our standard, that is not good enough, we are aiming for 100% cost recovery; so that we will expand and improve the quality and quantity of the water supply service to make people happy. This is because WASH is a critical determinant of the living standard of people.
Kaduna State Water Corporation has been run as a commercial entity in the last few years. How has been the journey so far?
The global best practice now means water is considered as a dual commodity. It is a social service and a commercial commodity, because of the amount of input. Water is free, it belongs to God and the people, but the services rendered to take raw water, using water treatment plant, using electricity, water treatment chemicals, staff energy and knowledge and expertise, and to transmit water into the places of requirement, this is what people are paying for. And for government to render that service sustainably, that is why Water Board was transformed to Water Corporation. As a result, we are now expected to be professionally managed and commercially oriented like the private sector. We have to be strategic in planning, engage in cost control, excellent customer service. As a result of that, we have now achieved 45% cost recovery and we are saying we need to double our effort from a marginal pass to first class. That is why we are initiating a PIP, Performance Improvement Program, to be able to achieve greater cost recover, greater hours of water supply and greater water quality to meet the World Health Organization water quality standard.
You were in Uganda for the African Water Conference. Give us highlights of what happened and how it will benefit the people of Kaduna State.
I had no background in water. I am a trained manager with an MBA. When I was posted to the water sector, there was a need to acquire technical knowledge on the workings and best practices of managing a utility successfully. An opportunity came in February this year when African Water Association did their congress and exhibition summit at Kampala, Uganda. And I had the approval of His Excellency to attend. What happened was that all the countries in Africa, represented by Ministries of Education, Water Resources or relevant ministries like our own attended. And water utilities, sanitation organizations, civil society resource persons assembled there. It was a wonderful learning opportunity. We had the chance to interact with peers across Africa. They showcased their achievement and we listened and had a peer review and learning which has enriched my experience and knowledge about the global practice of water management.
In addition to that, after the conference we went to the best water utility in Africa, the national water and sewerage commission of Uganda. We did a benchmarking study for five solid days. We went to all their departments to observe and learn. Our take home is that we are now better informed, well exposed and ready to use the knowledge we got from that engagement. If we implement the lessons we learnt at the African Water Association Annual General Meeting and Exhibition, as well as the benchmarking done with the Ugandan National Water and Sewerage Corporation, the people will be better for it because the services we are going to render will be superb. There will be improvement in quality, quantity, revenue and even staff welfare.
Is Kaduna State Water Corporation thinking of recycling sewage waste to clean water for consumption?
It is one of the ideas that we have. Sewerage is now a potential area of investment. You can take sewage and treat it to get electricity. You clean the water, you can get cooking gas, you can get manure for agriculture. In Kaduna State, we have the Ministry of Environment and Environmental Protection Agency, but we are setting a unit to do research because we are profit oriented. We see it as an investment window. So right now, we have a pilot scheme to do a faecal treatment plan on a smaller scale. From there, we can upscale. We had a sewerage network in Barnawa low cost and Malali, but they have been allowed to decay and expire. And there are very expensive to reticulate, but we want to have a pilot where it can be evacuated and it will be taken to the site, be treated. We can generate gas, and with the gas you can do anything.
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