In his bid to provide water for all in his domain, Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers has inaugurated a $4.5 million Aleto-Eleme water project.
The fund for the project is to be provided by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) while the state government executes it.
According to the Governor, on completion, the project would supply portable drinking water to about 40, 000 people in five communities in the Eleme Local Government Area.
Governor Amaechi noted that SPDC was not responsible for the oil pollution in Aleto-Eleme but agreed to fund the project as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility initiative.
He said, “To an Eleme man; there is no difference between SPDC and NNPC and so for me as a Governor of Rivers state I get very worried that we are losing people every day because of the (crude) oil that they are collecting.
“Companies are collecting our oil; companies are collecting our money and our people are dying. We need to get water first to Eleme, and then we go to Khana, Tai, Okirika and Oyibo.
“The water scheme will feed about 40, 000 Eleme people. I have directed the Commissioner for Water Resources to expand the Eleme water scheme so that it can reach the remaining communities that don’t have; no politics about that.
“The council chairman and His Royal Majesty (of Eleme) will arrange to set up a community-based team and their responsibility is to ensure that they manage the funding (for maintenance) and the water.”
In his remarks, Mutiu Sunmonu, the Managing Director of SPDC, assure that the project which started in August 2012 would address the challenge of water facing some communities.
Represented by Jimmy Ahmed, SPDC Director for Business and Government Relations unit, Sunmonu said “Few months after the UNEP report; SPDC began as a stop-gap measure; about 460, 000 litres of drinking water was trucked daily to the most affected communities of Ogale, Ebubu and Okirika to prevent further health risks, while a more permanent solution was conceived.
“This is just one of the examples of SPDC taking seriously the UNEP report; so this is one main project we have done with the Rivers state government to attend to some of the results from that report.
“We take seriously the health of our host communities and trying to make sure that in the communities where we operate we are socially responsible.
“There is a lot to be done and we are working with government, and this is just a prospect in that direction.”
