By Tina George, Minna
The Niger state water Board has improved its productivity capacity from 30 to 35 percent, the head of commercial services of the Board, Aliyu Umar disclosed yesterday.
He disclose that over 102 households had been connected to the water network bringing the number of active reticulated households in the state to 18,000.
Umar, who disclosed this to newsmen during a media round-table in Minna said that in January when a baseline survey was conducted, the productivity capacity of the state Water Board was 30 per cent.
“The last survey we did which was in August showed that our productivity survey is now 35 per cent. However, we have set a target to achieve at least 80 per cent production capacity in the next four years. “
Umar further said that there are 50,000 connections of consumers in Minna out of which only 18,000 connections are active adding that the Water Board is working hard to make the inactive connections active.
He disclosed that the Board generates an average of N10 million monthly across Niger state which, he said, is less than what is being produced.
“On average, we generate N10 million monthly, if we are lucky, some months we get N12 million, this however cut short of the services we render.
“Monthly, we produce service worth N36 million but we get less than have of it. We have not been able to generate the bills for what we produce monthly”, he said.
He lamented that the customers have different opinions regarding the payment for water stressing that the Board requires a lot of money for its operation.
“Our customers have different perceptions on paying for water. They believe that water should be free. However, we are not charging for water but for the services. We are finding it difficult for the people to pay for the water bills and we are appealing to them to pay their bills. The water board requires a lot of money for its operation. “
Also, the Head of Engineering Services Engrineer Aminu Muhammad Yusuf said that the distribution and reticulation network in the state is being worker upon towards ensuring that more households are connected to the water network.
