Kogi Government says it will sink a total of 956 motorised boreholes in the 239 electoral wards of the state in 2018.
The state Commissioner for Rural Development, Mr Paul Enema, disclosed this at the ministerial news briefing on the activities of his ministry held in Lokoja.
The programme was organised by the state Directorate of Information and Grassroots Sensitisation in collaboration with the state Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
Enema said the project would commence from the first quarter of the year with the sinking of one borehole each in of the selected rural communities of the 239 wards.
He said another round of a borehole per ward would also be done in the second, third and fourth quarters of the year in different communities bringing the total to 956.
The commissioner hinted that the state government had earmarked the construction of 500 kilometre World Bank standard rural feeder roads in each of the 21 local government areas of the state.
According to him, the project would be executed with the 500 million U.S. Dollar World Bank facilities for rural development, which the state was a beneficiary.
He said the state government had already paid its counterpart contribution to the intervention fund to facilitate its access.
Enema said the execution of the road projects billed to commence early 2019 was targeted at boosting road networks for ease transportation of goods and services across the state.
He said government was committed to rural development, provision of rural roads, electrification and water supply to all communities.
“As a government, who believes in the continuation of project execution and implementation, the ministry has concentrated on rehabilitation, resuscitation and reticulation of all the existing water schemes in the state,” he said.
The commissioner said his ministry had made significant impact in boosting rural electrification in the state through the provision of step down 500-KVA transformer to rural communities in the three senatorial districts of the state.
Speaking earlier, Mr Abdulkarim Abdulmalik, Director-General, Bureau of Information Services and Grassroots Sensitization, said the Stewardship Platform was for all the ministries to render account of their stewardship.
Abdulmalik said it was also aimed at bridging the communication gap between the people and the government through dissemination of policies and programs with a view to getting clearer feedbacks from the citizenry.
(NAN)
