Gov. Sani Bello (right) at the event
Niger State Governor Abubakar Sani Bello, has directed the Ministry of Lands and its Water Resources counterpart to ensure the pulling down of the Chanchaga Police Divisional Headquarters, and all other buildings on water pipeline in the area.
A statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary (CPS) Mary Noel-Berje, and made available to SummitNews, stated that the governor gave the directives when he inspected a bursted water pipeline located at the Police station which has prevented the supply of water to not less than 200 residents in the area.
He expressed displeasure on why structures including a Police station will be built on water pipeline which leads to one of the biggest reservoirs in Minna that supplies water to homes, describing the situation as unfortunate.
“It was just brought to my attention some times back and I decided to come and see for myself that their were buildings on the pipeline including this Police station. So they stopped pumping water because there is a burst on the pipeline and water is pouring all over the place. Is very unfortunate”‘ he lamented.
According to the governor, “the Ministries of Lands and Water Resources should do the needful, they can’t deprive people of water because of few buildings. They should bring them down”.
He reiterated that his administration in 2016, made a lot of investments in buying low and high lift pumps as well as other accessories to ensure adequate and constant clean water supply to the people, saying, that not being able to pump water due to bursted pipe is not encouraging.
The Managing Director (M.D), Niger state Water and Sewage Corporation, Hassan Mohammed Chado, explained that the bursted water pipeline was laid over 40 years ago, pointing out that there was no building around the area at the time.
He further explained, that the buildings on the pipeline have been there for about 30 years and efforts were made to notify the relevant authorities but no corresponding actions were taken.
The M.D said, it was three years ago that they started having challenges of bursted pipe under the Police Station and that efforts are on to remove the buildings from the pipeline as the situation has impacted negatively on the supply of water to about 200 residents in the area.
Governor Abubakar Sani Bello, had earlier inspected parts of the Chanchaga Water Works to assess its working condition.
