The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday, October 23, 2024, approved N78.35 billion for the construction and rehabilitation of the Buruku/Gboko Water Supply project in Benue State and the Greater Dutse Water Supply Project in Jigawa State.
Prof. Joseph Utsev, Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, said this while briefing State House correspondents after the FEC meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu.
“FEC approved the award of contract for construction of the Greater Dutse Water Supply Project in Jigawa at the total contract sum of ₦59,457,319,900.94.
“Council also approved the award of contract for the Rehabilitation of the Buruku/Gboko Water Supply Project in Benue at the total sum of ₦18,893,279,411.42,” Utsev stated.
According to him, both water supply schemes will be powered by solar as a deliberate effort to reduce carbon emission and the impact of climate change.
On the recent collapse of dams in the country, the Minister said a committee was assessing the state of all dams with the aim of putting them back to shape to avert flooding in the future.
“At the moment, the committee has been constituted into two teams. Team A and team B. The team A is now in Bauchi, it was in Plateau yesterday.
“From Bauchi, the team will move to Gombe, and proceed to Adamawa, while team B moves to Delta.
“Today, team B is in Enugu state and will be moving to Cross River. We are going to cover critical dams across the country before we go onto the second phase, where a report will be generated for Nigerians,” said the minister.
By Salif Atojoko
