Assembly members split over bill imposing tax on water usage

Majority of the members in the Bayelsa State House of Assembly have opposed and called for dismissal of a bill seeking to regulate and impose taxes, levies on usage of water amongst Bayelsa people and residents.

The bill sponsored by Hon. Ebiowou Koku-Obiyai (PDP Yenagoa ll) is intended to force taxes, levies on people before they could drink water from their rivers, drill boreholes, and even swim in these rivers.

According to the members, the said bill was anti-people and anti-Bayelsa even when the state government has not been able to provide drinkable water to the masses.

Leading the deliberation on the bill during Assembly plenary yesterday, Chief Barr. MacDonald Igbadiwei, representing Southern-Ijaw Constituency IV noted that the bill would deprive the people of Southern-Ijaw from accessing their God-given waters at will.