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The place of good health facilities and clean water can never be over emphasized as the presence of health facilities in communities and good and clean waters will do nothing but assures a healthy and virile populace. The Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, DESOPADEC, knowing this has continued to pursue some of the policies that lead to the formation of the commission.

 Health

Conscious of the fact that “health is wealth” and that healthy people constitute a great asset to the essential productive processes of their immediate environment and beyond, the current DESOPADEC Board has in the last three years devoted huge resources in the provision of healthcare facilities, equipment and consumables to cater for the needs of its mandate communities.

One of such healthcare facility is the Ultra Modern Cottage Hospital at Oboghoro, a burgeoning coastal community in Warri North Local Government Area, complete with a well equipped Medical Quarters for the accommodation of doctors, nurses and other medical personnel who are now happily delivering services to the people.

In the same vein, the board, by popular demand, constructed an Ultra Modern All-Purpose Health Facility at Agoloma in Patani Local Government Area to respond to the health needs of the people. The fully furnished and equipped facility was commissioned by the Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori who gave plaudits to the Ogieh-led board for its deep connection with the people.

His words: “The efforts and achievements of the board attest to the ever bold initiative of the Trustees of the Commission on behalf of the Governor Okowa administration.”

The board in the period under review also built and equipped a health facility at Utagba-Uno in Ndokwa West Local Government Area. This is in addition to renovating and fencing tens of clinics and hospitals in various other communities within the Commission’s mandate areas.

The Commission also donated equipment worth several millions of Naira to selected cottage hospitals and clinics as in Ogulagha, Burutu LGA; Oboghoro, Warri North LGA; General Hospital, Olomoro and Egbe-Igbide Cottage Hospital all in Isoko Nation. This is besides embarking on continuous free medical health programmes across most communities within its mandate areas.

The icing on the health pie was the provision of comprehensive medical equipment and consumables to all of the 268 Primary Health Care Centres in the state at the end of 2022.

The initiative ranks among the single largest dimension of corporate social responsibility in the health sector executed by any interventionist agency. It received the immediate commendation of His Excellency the Governor of Delta State who has also severally applauded the effectiveness of DESOPADEC in aligning with the Stronger Delta agenda of the State Government in health and other sectors.

 Water 

Water is considered the most essential element for the maintenance and sustenance of all beings. The provision of reliable source of safe, drinkable and adequate water supply is thus a vital prerequisite for the establishment of stable communities.

For the oil producing communities of Delta State which is predominantly riverine, lack of access to safe water had meant a resort to impure alternatives such as rain water, crude oil-polluted salt rivers and water hyacinth infested streams for their daily water needs.

Guaranteed access to potable water is therefore one of the most critical needs of the people. When juxtaposed with the abundance of petroleum resource in the underbelly of the mandate areas which powers the entire Nigerian federation, the story needed to be changed and the situation is being frontally addressed through the Commission’s deep understanding of the dynamics and exigencies of intervention.

Accordingly and for long, the people of Obodo in Warri South LGA; Ebedei Uno in Ukwuani LGA; Uba Egbelemeji-Koko in Warri North LGA; Uruto Quarters in Isoko North LGA; Oliogo Umuseti in Ndokwa West LGA; Okuovo District in Okpe LGA; Emede in Isoko South LGA and many more benefiting communities will certainly remember the effort of DESOPADEC in bringing succor to them in the water sector.