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Reason has been adduced as to why Asaba residents will continue to live without provision of public water supply by the state government.
Director General of the Delta state Capital Development Agency (DSCDA), Chief Clement Ofuani hinted this morning, Thursday, July 13, 2017, during a media chat with journalists under the aegis of Correspondents Chapel of the Nigeria union of Journalists (NUJ) in Asaba that water will continue to be a big challenge because of the huge financial implication involved.
“Water is a big challenge. My Agency is not focusing on the provision of water because of the huge financial implications. It is one area we are collaborating with other organizations to achieve. We don’t have the financial resources to provide massive water solutions for the public,” Ofuani said.
He also disclosed that Asaba before the coming of the Governor Ifeanyi Okowa administration has no Master Plan, pointing out that it is the absence of a Master Plan for Asaba, Delta state capital that is responsible for the some noticeable distortions.
“Asaba before now has no Master Plan, but a layout plan. Because there was no Master Plan, the southern part of the city has no schools, health centres, hospitals, etc, Ofuani disclosed,” explaining that if there was a master plan it would have helped in ensuring that these infrastructures are considered when government was allocating resources. “The core area of Asaba was planned in 1991; the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) office was planned in 1991. We are working with a document that is place in a layout plan,” he stated.
The Director General announced that the Okowa administration is working to produce a master plan for Asaba, and that work on it is already at an advanced stage. He stated that when the Master Plan would finally be in place, it will help to imposed discipline on the capital territory’s development plan as anyone in breach of the development plan would be appropriately sanction according to the law. “Somebody in breach of the development plan could not be held accountable because there is no law,” Ofuani explained. But now, he announced that the Master Plan being fashioned will take care of the anomaly so as impose some measure of discipline.
He also hinted that his office is working to ensure that the challenge of noise pollution in the state is eased out. “We are working with the Ministry of Justice to review the sanitation law,” he disclosed. The move he pointed out will help bring sanity to the issue of noise pollution, the challenge of indiscriminate waste dumps, and clearing of drains.
He decried a situation where residents dump wastes indiscriminately on medians and on the highways, despite that provision has been made for the purchase of subsidized waste bins procured by the State government, but that the waste bins are lying fallow in the premises of the Ministry of Environment.
Ofuani said the environmental law is being reviewed and that when it finally comes on stream compounds around which dumped wastes are found the occupants will be liable for not having waste bins in their premises as provided by the sanitation law. “Any house that does not have a waste bin is a potential waste dumper on the highway,” he said.
The DSCDA Director General also hinted of a plan, although a long term one to provide Asaba with a mono rail mass transit system. “Work has commenced on studies towards realizing this. “We intend to build something that is not expensive. He consultants have achieved close to 70 percent study on the project plan,” he said.
On the stalled DLA Road project, Ofuani said worked on the road is stalled because the state government is taking a holistic view of the project, explaining that a primary sewer has to be dug to ensure that water from all areas of DLA Road are collected and channeled into the sewer. “Contract for this has been awarded to CCC, a construction firm, which is expected to mobilize to site at the cessation of the rains,” the DG stated.