by Pita Chib, Minna

The Niger State Water and Sewage Corporation(NSWSC) on Monday raised alarm that security agencies in the state are owing over N300 million for water being supplied to them to use.

The Corporation also lamented the refusal of top government functionaries including Legislators, Commissioners and some tertiary institutions in the state to pay water bills.

The Assistant General Manager (AGM), Commercial Services of the Corporation, Aliyu Danladi Umar, made this known to newsmen in Minna during a media interactivce session  organized by FOMWAN in Minna.

Umar said that the amount of domestic and commercial debts owned to the Corporation is N700 million, adding that the Corporation is finding it extremely difficult to recover the money from these agencies as it is not easy for them to enter their premises and disconnect them.

"We all know the Army barracks is not a place one can enter anyhow, also, the Police and prison service are not places one can just go and disconnect them.

"We have engaged a consultant to begin a dialogue with these agencies and we have started engaging on how they can pay us. The money is much needed and we need them to pay."

He further disclosed that top government officials especially commissioners, Permanent Secretaries and Legislators are also defaulting in the payment of water services.

"It is quite disheartening and in fact a gross act of dishonesty that a lot of top government officials blatantly refused to pay for water they have consummated .
                                                  *Niger governor, Bello

It is sad because domestic water payment is just N1,000 monthly but these personalities believe that water is free but they do not know that the cost of production is very expensive."

According him, the Chachanga Water Works, which is one of the six urban works of the Corporation expends over N60 million every month, stressing on the need for the consumers to see the need to pay their water bills.

"It beats my imagination to hollow  that it is very difficult to pay N1,000 monthly for water whereas commercial water vendors sell 10 gallons of 25 litres of water for N350 which is not usually enough for a household.

The Public Relations Officer of the Niger state Water and Sewage Corporation, Aliyu Jibo Garba, said that the volume of water produced monthly is over 1,580,940 cubic meters but the corporation is only able to sell just 519,379 cubic meters monthly.

Garba said that the corporation has begun the construction of a sewage plant that would deal with faecal waste.

The Head of Customer Care Unit of the Corporation, Zainab Yunusa, also lamented that out of N36m billed by the Corporation monthly, only N12 million is being collected, adding "this is not even up to half of what is being billed. A lot of the money collected is spent to produce this water but the people do not want to understand this."