The Gombe State Government spend over N1.8bn annually on provision of water supply, the Commissioner of Water Resources, Alhaji Mohammed Danazumi, has said.
The commissioner made the disclosure on Thursday in Gombe while briefing newsmen at the end of the meeting of the state executive council.
He said that despite the fact the government spends such huge amount on the provision of potable water; it could not generate N5m from consumers annually as payment for water rate.
He said, “The annual expenses for the maintenance of the scheme runs into billions of naira, while only a paltry sum of between N4 to N5m is realised annually.”
Danazumi said the government would soon review the services of its revenue board to ensure adequate remittance of water rates in other to sustain the multi-billion naira water supply scheme.
He said that considering the poor state of the national economy, the state government had seen the need to look inward by exploring all means available to boost revenue generation.
The commissioner said that the supply of water from Dadin-kowa dam, (the only source of water supply in the state) might stop due to lack of funds to maintain the dam.
He said that the meeting approved the rehabilitation of water tankers to ease water supply in some areas especially areas not connected to Dadin-kowa water scheme.
He called on the people to always report cases of leakages of water pipes and desist from patronising road side plumbers to prevent destruction of government properties.
Danazumi said that than 30 per cent of water being supplied to the people is misused due to negligence and not reporting problems to the board.
SOURCE.. PUNCH
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