The chief executive officer of Lagos Water Corporation (LWC) Engr. Muminu Adekunle Badmus, has reiterated need for government at all levels to focus on building of pipe borne water as a prelude to infrastructural development of the nation.
Badmus spoke at a webinar titled “Pipe Borne Water: A Major Infrastructural Prerequisite For Development in Nigeria.
The webinar is The 1ST annual late ENGR.JIBRIL ADEBAYO ANDU symposium on Nigeria’s water resources & supply in honour of Nigeria’s first water & hydrology engineer on his 95th Posthumous birthday
The event was Moderated by Mr. Yanju Adegbite.
Badmus spoke on the topic, “The Huge Investment Dividends of Pipe Borne Water: Lagos State As a Case Study”
He extensively intimated the attendees on the efforts, actions and achievements of the Lagos State Water Corporation in ensuring that residents of the city are served hygienic, clean pipe borne water which is the healthiest for human consumption. Engr. Badmus began his lecture by giving an overview of Lagos which is foundational in ensuring the accessibility of Pipe Borne water to citizens.
According to the statistics, Lagos:
- Is the most populous economic city in the Sub-Saharan region with rapid growth rate. By projection, the population is expected to double within the next ten years.
- Has more water than land mass.
- Is a city whose human statistics increase daily because of the influx of people looking for economic opportunities.
Unfortunately, this statistics also points to the enormous challenges government faces in terms of overstretched amenities and infrastructural demands which has to be tackled before the task of making pipe borne available to all citizen is visible.
Engr. Badmus stated that at present, only 33% of the population in Lagos has access to clean portable water which is 210 million gallons per day as against the demand of 492 million gallons per day leaving out close to 70% of the population without access to pipe borne water.
However, he assured that the water accessibility challenge is a global one in which Lagos State through her Water Corporation is pragmatically working to combat.
As at now, according to him, Lagos State government is upgrading existing water facilities as well as building new ones to meet the growing but necessary demands of water challenge in the city. The Corporation has four major and 48 mini / macro Waterworks.
At present, the corporation is constructing Adiyan 11 while while yewa 1 and Ishasi expansions are future plans we are exploring under PPP.
These constructions of new water facilities are to serve the present and projected population growth.
The upgraded facilities are also being improved to increasing their capacities levels, distribution and constructions networks.
More so, there are plans to also deploy SCADA which stands for “supervisory control and data acquisition” in water treatment and to remotely monitor and control devices at the different water facilities locations.
On answering the question of infrastructural damage, especially of water pipe lines by those who flaunt statutory rules on constructions, Engr. Badmus says that Lagos Water Corporation is pro-active in stakeholders and community engagement by informing and educating the populace of the need to adhere to laid down procedures by the government for effective benefit of all citizens. More so, the corporation is also monitoring its assets and infrastructures in ensuring proper functioning for water passage to households from the various treatment plants.
In all, Lagos Water Corporation is ensuring that Pipe Borne Water production level increases to 492million gallons per day by the year 2030.
Also at the event was Prof. Lasisi Afolabi who spoke on the importance of innovation and capacity building in the new normal which the world is experiencing presently because of the pandemic which is actually necessary for pipe borne water development, treatment and distribution. He said that innovation aid in infrastructural development which leads to accessibility of pipe borne water to all citizens.
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He also mentioned that institutionalizing the study of engineering at the higher citadels of learning is paramount because future innovations are born when individuals study the course of Engineering and have the level playing field to practice what they have learnt in various capacities.
He ended his presentation by stating that several factors impedes the practice of innovative thinking in Engineering amongst which are diversification and lack of platforms to apply creative advances.
Engr. Dapo Sulu, the second speaker spoke on the importance of pipe borne water in combating diseases especially in Nigeria amongst which is child mortality which is quite high due to the use of borehole water which may look clean, clear and odorless but is not healthy for human consumption. He stressed the need for the country to revert to water treatment plants which were prevalent in the 70’S and 80’s. He stated that for pipe borne water accessibility to be possible in Lagos state, the government would have to enforce its statutory rules and regulation to make sure that citizens erect buildings and structures according to specifications and laid down rules. According to him, in a state where people erect structures illegally and flaunt building rules, distribution of pipe borne water to households would be difficult and almost impossible because waterways ways would be tampered with when structures are built illegally
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