The Kogi House of Assembly has called for a summit of experts on water to fashion out a blueprint for management of water resources in the state.
The chairman, House committee on Water, Haruna Musa, made the call at a meeting of the committee with officials of the state Ministry of Water Resources and its agencies during the budget defence at the Assembly complex in Lokoja. Musa stressed the need to send some of the ministry’s water engineers oversees to understudy water maintenance strategies to enable them manage the Greater Lokoja water project efficiently.
Musa lamented that much money had been expended on foreign experts engaged to manage the water project, adding that it would be better and cost effective to train indigenous engineers to manage it.
A member of the committee and House member representing Ijumu, Yori Afolabi (APC-Ijumu) in his contribution, urged the management of the state water board to strengthen its revenue collection mechanism. He also urged the board to evolve means of handling consumers who default in payment of their water bills and block revenue leakages. The Commissioner for Water Resources, Mrs Hadiza Onotu, said plans had reached advanced stage on effective and efficient billing method.
