From Aniekan Aniekan, Calabar
The Cross River State government has moved to secure its multi billion naira investments in the water sector by recruiting security personnel across the state.
This is aimed at protecting the investments from vandalization.
The State Commissioner for Water Resources Bassey Mensah disclosed this during an interview in Calabar at the sidelines of the celebration of this year’s World Water Day which had as theme: Water for peace.
The commissioner explained that vandalism remains a major challenge of water supply in the state and it’s investments in Calabar Metropolis alone is worth 20 billion naira.
He commended the state governor granting approval to recruit security men to secure these facilities.
“Our facilities in Calabar are worth over 20 billion and you cannot have such facilities and go to sleep.
“To secure these facilities, the governor approved the employment of security men across the state depending on their catchment area and we have done that to secure the facilities”, he said.
He also thanked the state governor for helping to keep the price of water low in the state despite the high cost of production.
He said water supply has been restored to parts of the state capital and selected LGAs and plans are afoot to revive all the water outstations across the state.
He added that the state is in the process of passing the Water Bill into law.
He explained that this will help develop the standard required to manage both public and private water supply and utilization in the state.