written by Ekuri Elnathan
23/06/2024
The Managing Director of Nasarawa state water board and a chartered geoscientist, kana Ahmad Abubakar who is also a fellow of Nigerian mining and Geosciences society, in an interview with Kukuruku media team revealed that the mandate of Nasarawa State water board is to provide water to any community that’s over five thousand in Nasarawa state and the geographical Nasarawa state, therefore Monitoring the ground water rise and fall of Lafia for water allocation, as well as flood prevention measures.
According to him, the five thousand is classified as the urban and semi urban area, of which they’re to provide them with clean water supply that is the void of any unwanted material .
Ahmad also described two types of water in Nigeria, surface or groundwater, and Nasarawa state happens to have different hydrological condition, some of the water works in Nasarawa state are ground water driven while some are surface water driven where by rivers are there, studies were carried out in time memorial and ideological studies were done for certain number of years .
He added that some rivers are now perennial, which are not seasonal, since there are perennial some are having damps which can result to certain conditions, while some are intake depending on the location. Those that are ground water base areas don’t have river or surface waters that are perennial, for that reason they have to go into the ground despite the deficiency, in the sense that some of them will have deficiency even the ground water potential.
Ahmad Kana went further to say that they are certain areas that have salinity depending on the type of salt , and in terms of the hydrological formation in that area, there’s what is called the awe formation,awe formation is saline, what the board does with current technology is that they do hydrogeological survey which is all incompasion and try to see the area of salinity that can be avoided, the area where there’s salinity they do what is called slurring by grouting and then fresh water is ready for supply.
As the managing director of Nasarawa State water board, Ahmad kana said he mines the water on behalf of the government, his leadership role is to ensure water is being provider to any community that is over five thousand in nasarawa state and the geographical Nasarawa state which consists of urban and semi urban areas, as a water board their duty is to provide the state with clean water. He makes sure water is brought out and then dispense it to the people of Nasarawa state as well as do the recovery in terms of tariff.
He revealed during the interview that the biggest project in Nasarawa State has just been approved by his excellency Abdullahi Sule at the cost of one billion one hundred and ninety million naira of a booster station in garaku that can be able to boost the water from the mada kondu which was commissioned in 1995 in then Plateau state, Keffi town were not initial, to give water to three constitutional local governments in garaku, akwanga local government, the Nasarawa state university and up to the 177 battalion Barack in keffi which is going to commence soon.
He said, When the e concept of the project was conceived in 1995 there was no Nasarawa university, all the water budgeting and allocation that are now given to the university there were no initial design as result of that there were frictional losses and water does not deliver to what they call Maloney reservoir, for that reason as the managing director, a proposal was written to the his excellency and graciously after a lot of debates and constructive sumittion he eventually approved the work.
Ahmad said “he prays that the necessary political will should be given, which will enable them meet their targets by February next year and water will be pushed from garaku up to Nasarawa university, they have done some sort of simulation to enable those that tap water from the pumping mill which in keffi they called 24 outline will be able to absorb all the social losses and the people of keffi will start having water, which the impact is likely to reduce public health diseases typhoid such and malaria in the state.
According to the managing Director, the water board has made an impact so far in terms of Human capital development, infrastructure sector, climate change, Collaborations with some development partners, Collaborations with inter agency, collaborations in Abuja and Nigeria metrological agency and many more.
Ahmad emphasized on the need for all surface waters to be treated because they are not safe, they are contaminated which can lead to pollution. Ground water depends on hydrological conditions which can be safe.
He pointed out Challenges facing water cooperation such as; funding, power supply , cost of running, imported materials , raw materials , issue of training when due, expansion programs , lack of equipment.
Hence , he calls for a collaboration between industries, government and the academia to able to improve water supply sector. He re-emphasized on the need for more funding in the water supply sector in Nigeria in order to reduce environmental problem and also be minimized.
He said,”If you leave a legacy you can feel and touch for so that continuity is going to be easier, because if all I have mentioned, I have not trained people people that will be in value chain to take over certainly am not going to be a happy man when I am going to be in my home”.
“When I leave, the stuff I am training now they should be better than me, they should have even more networking both local and international , if I do a quality job when I am passing I should be proud to say this is the legacy I have left behind”.
