…. thank operators of the GSM village at Cantonment for taking the lead in ownership of public utilities
The Kogi State Commissioner for Water Resources, Engr. Yahaya MD Farouk, MNSE, MNICE has called on residents and communities in the State to take ownership of public utilities as a way of partnering with the Government for better service delivery.
The Commissioner gave the charge when he paid a thank you visit to the operators of the GSM Village at Cantonment, Lokoja, thanked them for their patriotism in accepting to fix a broken pipe that has affected the free flow of water to Kabawa and Kporaka area up to the bridge when going to New Market of Lokoja.
According to the Commissioner, “Since last week when we tried to send water to Kabawa, we discovered that it was difficult getting to the desired community and location”.
” We discovered that at the junction linking the highway by the GSM village in cantonment, in the course of the GSM operators trying to mount their signboard, they broke one of our pipe, deep down to the ground”.
” The damage was so much that it affected pressure that would have allowed for water to get to Kabawa and Kporaka”.
” The operators of the GSM village were patriotic and accepted that they were going to fix it at their own cost. They didn’t just stop at replacing the pipe, they changed the whole length of the pipe and covered it with concrete”.
The Commissioner commended the GSM operators and thanked them for the display of patriotism, pointing out that if communities, Association will be patriotic as the GSM operators, things will be better in the state and country as a whole.
” This is the type of partnership we want with communities and for the people to take ownership of public utilities and government assets “.
” If all of us do this type of ownership and partnership things will be better in the country. If you have a pipe connecting your house and it brakes, you don’t say it is for government because if you say until Government comes to fix it, we will continue to have waste of money and resources”.
Henceforth, the Commissioner for Water Resources said the Ministry will adopt partnership across the State, called on the people to take ownership of any and every existing infrastructure in their communities and around them.
” We will make sure the handshake between the Government, the people, contractors, Communities, the Traditional Council and the Youths is properly built so that whatever security we are going to provide meets the desired objective and that it is secured. Without this handshake, we as a government will continue to encounter problems”.
The Commissioner assured that now that the old Lokoja waterworks is operational to serve the township, traditional areas of Lokoja up to the bridge after Kporaka, said the Ministry has enough chemicals that will for the next two months ensure that water is pumped every day if there is no challenge of Power supply.
The Commissioner thanked the operators of the GSM village at Cantonment for taking the lead in ownership of public utilities, assured them of the support of the administration of Gov Usman Ahmed Ododo in creating an enabling environment for them to operate their businesses.