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| Dr. Ibrahim Hamza, Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Kaduna State |
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| Dr. Ibrahim Hamza |
Kaduna State Government says it carried out an almost six-month holistic review of the Water sector last year with a view to improving access to quality, potable water for citizens of the state.
It said when the Uba Sani administration came in, it met a situation where all the water facilities were about to be concessioned to a company, with all transactions concluded.
The Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Dr. Ibrahim Hamza, revealed this while commenting on the state's performance on the Sustainable Urban Rural Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (SURWASH) program.
He said when the government reviewed the documents, it found out that the value of the 12 Water Treatment Plants was running into almost N2.5 Trillion.
"We saw this as a very bad investment. And why should you concession such valuable facilities to people who do not even have the know-how?"
"We then looked at the pedigree of that organization that was coming to take the concession; and this concession was for the next 25 years. And what they were going to give to the state in return was a meager amount of money. So, we decided to look inward to see how we could review and revive the water industry. First, we declared a state of emergency. A committee of all stakeholders in the water industry in the state was set up, and we came up with a good plan on how to move the sector forward. Part of the low-hanging fruit for which we would have funds was the SURWASH. This is why SURWASH plays a very vital role, but overall, the State Government is fully in charge because we have already declared a state of emergency. So, we're only using the SURWASH program as an alternative source."
Dr. Ibrahim Hamza pointed out that from the beginning, almost all the seven participating states, namely Delta, Ekiti, Gombe, Katsina, Plateau, and others, had a very low score in terms of performance because most of the states did not understand the concept of SURWASH.
"This is because SURWASH is run under a new World Bank program called Performance for Results (P4R). This is a new concept and model that not all people are conversant with. So, we had to review the study, looked at the model very well to see how we could capitalize on it. At the end of the mid-term review, sometimes last year in 2024, myself, the coordinator, the World Bank Coordinator, His Excellency, the Governor, and the Task Team Leader, including the National Coordinator, met and reviewed the best way to approach it: what would be the State's investment and results. We categorized the three sources of income into different compartments. The state has to invest, and it will make the highest investment. Then, there will be an advance payment also by the World Bank and the Ministry of Water Resources. Then, the final access is the results."
"But, you know, mostly, water projects are long-term projects. And some of these facilities for water are not readily available off the shelf in Nigeria. You have to go offshore and source for them and place an order. Unfortunately, some of the facilities in our plants are obsolete. So, to get the same thing to replace, the same kinds of pumps to replace are not readily available. The world has gone beyond that. Sometimes it might mean you do a holistic overhaul of the plant, like we're doing in most of the plants. The 150 million liters per day plant in Zaria is a brand new facility. But, for the past 10 years, new products have come in, new kinds of pumps that are energy efficient, more production have come in. So, things have changed a little. What we're doing now is, out of the eleven pumps we have, only three are working. And the three that are working don't work because of low power voltage supply in the facility. We're taking care of the power supply and also trying to see how we can upgrade those three. But, for the eight others, we have to get brand new pumps to supplement what we have, to make them more energy efficient. The power consumption is going to be low; the efficiency, which is the output, is going to increase."
Commenting on the four years of the SURWASH Program, the Works and Infrastructure Commissioner said:
"The last two and a half years in the new work program that we did - 2024-2025 - I can boldly tell you that we have achieved more than 90 percent because the State was supposed to invest about N11.6 billion; but the Governor, in his wisdom, has invested close to N9.8 billion, that's close to 90 percent. And I think we're on the right course, going by the performance."
Dr. Ibrahim Hamza further revealed that by the investment it is making in the Water sector, SURWASH is only complementing what the state government is doing.
"There are semi-small town water schemes that we're also doing which are supposed to accommodate settlements of between 20,000 - 50,000 families in communities. SURWASH covers only six Local Government Areas. But, as it is now, the government is covering all 23 LGAs. Hence, as I said earlier, SURWASH is only complementing what Kaduna State Government is doing. The bulk of the job is being done by the State Government. If you look at the State Government's investment vis-a-vis what SURWASH has invested, they're far apart, while the State is investing heavily."
He thanked citizens of the State for their cooperation in reducing open defecation, noting that open defecation is a component of sanitation.
"We all know that Kaduna State is actually doing well in that aspect. We have covered almost 18 LGAs that are certified free of open defecation. We have challenges in one or three LGAs which we're working assiduously to see that we have a 100 percent open defecation-free environment. In that area, the government is actually doing well. In the area of rural water supply, it's also doing very well. We're creating toilets to increase sanitation so that people don't just go and defecate anywhere. We're building more and more public toilets in markets, parks, and institutional areas like Churches, Mosques, etc., so that people will have a safe place to go to. We're also doing some advocacy to create awareness. Part of our actual goal is to ensure that we provide potable and quality drinking water. As it is now, all 12 plants have more than sufficient supplies of sludge and chemicals that will last more than six months."
As the Senator Uba Sani-led administration prepares to celebrate its two years in office, Dr. Ibrahim Hamza said:
"From my own side of the story, it has been very commendable. I supervise about four sectors of the economy: transport, road construction, water, and power.
I would boldly say that we have done grossly above average in almost all the sectors. You're all aware that we're doing a lot in terms of rural infrastructure, provisions of roads, access to our farms, markets, and the rest. We're doing creditably well. We have roads covering 700 kilometers spread across the 23 LGAs, and I can beat my chest to say that there's no LGA in the state that has not felt the impact of rural infrastructure."
"On the issue of water provision, we're also doing well. We've done a lot in revitalizing most of our facilities, and we're doing well. By the end of this year, hopefully, people will see very good and significant results in the water sector."
"In the power sector, we have just joined the E-heart program under the World Bank and Federal Government. It's an intervention program. We all know the issue of power is very difficult, not only in Kaduna State, but the nation all over. But, I think we're doing fairly good in Kaduna. The power issue is capital intensive, and only recently, we got a concurrent bill now that's going to be domiciled in Kaduna for us to be able to generate. Before, we did not generate, but only distributed."
"In the transport sector also, we're doing extremely well. We've just recently launched the BRT corridor which we are going to create, and the project is about to start. We have appointed all the consultants - the PMO, the PCS consultants, who are all working assiduously to ensure by 2026, we mobilize to site and start work. And once they move, it will just take 18 months; before the end of this administration, we'll begin to see results. Also, the Governor just announced that the Federal Government has supported him to the tune of almost N200 billion to provide light rail. We're studying the corridors like Kaduna - Zaria, Kaduna - Kafanchan, and within the Kaduna metropolis, from Anguwan Sarki side to Rigasa, Anguwan Sarki to Millennium City: these are the axes we're having expansions. Most of these things are capital intensive. So, we intend to review our successes within the Kaduna metropolis and try to extend it to Zaria metropolis and Kafanchan metropolis going forward."
Dr. Ibrahim commended people of the state for their support to the government thus far.
"As usual, I like to commend the people once again. I always say that the people are cooperative and really willing to work with the Government. That's why you need a responsible government. You can see lots of crises like religious, kidnappings, and banditry are reasonably down in the state. Why? Because we have a responsible government that listens and carries the people along."
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