As essential to human life as water could be, in Anambra state, no political will by every administration to provide this essential commodity. OKECHUKWU ONUEGBU in this investigative report writes that all is still not well.
In 1978 when the government of old Anambra state comprising the present Anambra, Ebonyi and Enugu states established a water corporation under Edict 18, the purpose was to ensure that the citizens have access to portable water. Then water, a basic necessity of life was seen as a necessity of life which the government must provide to the populace.
Domiciled in the Ministry of Works (Water Division), the Anambra state water corporation (ASWC) provided well-treated water at affordable rates to most households, government institutions, organisations, hotels, among others. Upon the creation of the present Anambra on August 27 1991, the state inherited 67 water schemes.
The 67 water schemes now moribund are presently five urban water schemes sited at Awka, Onitsha, Nnewi, Ihiala and Aguata, respectively.
They were divided into 14 zonal headquarters namely, Awka zone 1 and Awka zone II, Onitsha zones I to 5, Aguata zone, Anaocha zone, Neni zone, Idemili zone, Ihiala zone, Njikoka zone and Nnewi zone for easy supply of water to all the 179 communities in the state.
As it was then
The edict 18 was later repealed and re-enacted by Edict 3 of 1999. It was also commercialised in a way that users of the essential commodity pay certain rates or tariffs just to support its day-to-day activities even though it was not commensurate to the cost of production. Therefore, the government which usually fixes the tariff provide subvention to the corporation.
The tariff plan of the agency prepared by the state government on February 1st 1999 obtained by this Blueprint indicated that the metered customers using it for domestic purposes were charged 4.5 kobo per litre or N45 per 1,000 litres, while those using it for industries and commercial purposes pay 8.5k per litre or N85 per 1,000 litres.
According to the plan, filling stations, laundry services, banks, car washing services pay 8.5 kobo pay litre or N85 per 1,000 litres, public institutions and establishments pay 5.5 kobo per litre or N55 per 1,000 litres, non-metered customers like public institutions were charged N4,000 monthly.
There are also charges for other users including price issuance of license for drilling of boreholes and other hydrauclic works, license for water quality renewable, among other services.
No respite
Presently, all these state-owned water schemes have collapsed or shut down indefinitely with their premises turned into thick forests. Sources even claimed that some vehicles, office equipment and others belonging to these establishment got missing either because they were sold through auction or stolen by hoodlums. Investigation also revealed that few water schemes currently functional in the state are those executed by European union, UNICEF and other donor agencies and handed over to host communities. They include Obizi-Uga regional water scheme in Aguata LGA, Nibo water scheme in Awka South and Otuocha water scheme in Anambra-East LGAs.
Attempts to resuscitate moribund board?
The corporation was officially shut down in 2012 by the state government which also laid off over 1,000 staff of Anambra State Water Corporation, Anambra State Environmental Protection Agency (ANSEPA), Volunteer Service Agency and Anambra State Marketing Company LTD. Sources in the government cycle claimed the corporation was closed down because it was not generating enough income to sustain its existence let alone internally generated revenue (IGR) for the state. But available records proved that the state government was the one that determines the tariff plan of the board since inception.
Legal solution to mass sack
The Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE) in the state intervened by seeking audience with the state government but all to no avail. They sued the state government before the Industrial Court.
The legal battle which lingered since 2012 also has as defendants, the Anambra State Urban Water Holding Corporation (sued as Anambra State Water Corporation) and Anambra State Waste Management Authority (sued as Anambra State Environmental Protection Agency).
“The union asked the state government to recall ANSEPA staff whose appointment were illegally and unjustly terminated and payment of their arrears of salaries from January 2012 to date, payment of workers of the corporation arrears of salaries from January 2012 to date, absorption and payment of salaries owed workers of Anambra Marketing Company for the period of 2002 to date and absorption of the Volunteer Service Agency (VSA) workers to the core ministry and promotion/advancement of the workers not done since over 20 years,” a source stated.
The National Industrial Court, Enugu Division, on June 3rd 2019 delivered final judgment on that to the favour of AUPCTRE. A copy of the judgement delivered by His Lordship, Hon Justice O. O. Arowosegbe, was made available to Blueprint which also has other correspondences the union and the staff of the water corporation respectively wrote to the state head of service, Governor Willie Obiano and other government functionaries, including fruitless efforts a federal minister made to settle the matter when former Governor Peter Obi was in power.
Among them is the letter dated January 30, 2018 which the sacked staff of the water corporation wrote to the state House of Assembly through its speaker, requesting for their urgent intervention. Attached to the letter are names of 291 staff of the water board corporation who died waiting for their backlog of emoluments.
It reads, “Sir, more than 291 staff of Anambra state Water Corporation who are career civil servants have died prematurely because of the said non- payment of their salaries and pensions and those of the workers that survived are shadows of themselves. They cannot pay their children’s school fees and these children are now school drop-outs. They cannot even afford two square meals per day.
“Anambra state is the only state in Nigeria that does not have functional water scheme. Anambra state is the only state in Nigeria that is owing its water board staff and pensioners. Sir, we are pleading that you use your good offices to ensure that the state government pay the staff and pensioners of the state water corporation their arrears of salaries and pensions to save souls of the surviving workers and pensioners.
“Sir, we also attached to the list of the deceased staff of Anambra state Water Corporation with reference no AN/WC/WEL/01/025/2018 who died as a result of non- payment of salaries and pensions owed them by the state government for your perusal.”
However, despite these years of unpaid salaries and battle for survival, two key officers of the agency still come to office to perform their important function. They are the head of account and head of personnel departments. The HOD account, Mr Hillary Izuagwu, who was found in his office when Blueprint visited in Awka, said he works round the clock for data documentation of his staff.
The legal battle which lingered since 2012 also has as defendants, the Anambra State Urban Water Holding Corporation (sued as Anambra State Water Corporation) and Anambra State Waste Management Authority (sued as Anambra State Environmental Protection Agency).
“The union asked the state government to recall ANSEPA staff whose appointment were illegally and unjustly terminated and payment of their arrears of salaries from January 2012 to date, payment of workers of the corporation arrears of salaries from January 2012 to date, absorption and payment of salaries owed workers of Anambra Marketing Company for the period of 2002 to date and absorption of the Volunteer Service Agency (VSA) workers to the core ministry and promotion/advancement of the workers not done since over 20 years,” a source stated.
The National Industrial Court, Enugu Division, on June 3rd 2019 delivered final judgment on that to the favour of AUPCTRE. A copy of the judgement delivered by His Lordship, Hon Justice O. O. Arowosegbe, was made available to Blueprint which also has other correspondences the union and the staff of the water corporation respectively wrote to the state head of service, Governor Willie Obiano and other government functionaries, including fruitless efforts a federal minister made to settle the matter when former Governor Peter Obi was in power.
Among them is the letter dated January 30, 2018 which the sacked staff of the water corporation wrote to the state House of Assembly through its speaker, requesting for their urgent intervention. Attached to the letter are names of 291 staff of the water board corporation who died waiting for their backlog of emoluments.
It reads, “Sir, more than 291 staff of Anambra state Water Corporation who are career civil servants have died prematurely because of the said non- payment of their salaries and pensions and those of the workers that survived are shadows of themselves. They cannot pay their children’s school fees and these children are now school drop-outs. They cannot even afford two square meals per day.
“Anambra state is the only state in Nigeria that does not have functional water scheme. Anambra state is the only state in Nigeria that is owing its water board staff and pensioners. Sir, we are pleading that you use your good offices to ensure that the state government pay the staff and pensioners of the state water corporation their arrears of salaries and pensions to save souls of the surviving workers and pensioners.
“Sir, we also attached to the list of the deceased staff of Anambra state Water Corporation with reference no AN/WC/WEL/01/025/2018 who died as a result of non- payment of salaries and pensions owed them by the state government for your perusal.”
However, despite these years of unpaid salaries and battle for survival, two key officers of the agency still come to office to perform their important function. They are the head of account and head of personnel departments. The HOD account, Mr Hillary Izuagwu, who was found in his office when Blueprint visited in Awka, said he works round the clock for data documentation of his staff.
He said he was hopeful that the corporation would get back to life because, according to him, “Everyone knows the benefits of having a public water scheme. I tell you that once we get this working again, the number of people going to hospital would reduce because water is life. Bad water causes diseases. Public water would also yield revenue to the state. It is also accessible and relatively affordable.”
State government intervention
On June 2nd, 2015, the state House of Assembly passed a bill to establish the Anambra State Water Supply and Sanitation (WSS) Law, 2015. The bill which was also signed into law by Governor Obiano, established the Anambra State Asset Holding Company, the Anambra State Small Town Water and Sanitation Agency, Rural Water and Sanitation Agency, the regulatory commission and roles of government and the private sector and for other matters connected therewith.
The law vested all the existing and new state-owned water infrastructures and assets in the urban areas including management of water services assets, investments and liabilities of the water corporation to the Anambra state Urban Water Asset Holdings Corporation (UWAHC). The corporation is to also take care of water issues in cities with over 20,000 population.To be continued tomorrow.
Agencies/ laws yet no performance
Also established by law is Small Towns Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (STOWA) charged with the responsibilities of advising the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) departments of LGAs, the state government and the Water Consumers Associations (WCA) on technical matters in the small towns water supply and sanitation sub-sector, assistance in organising and managing water supply systems, among others. STOWA is for communities with over 5,000 population namely, Amichi, Awkzu and others.
Another one is the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASSA) charged to work in consultation with WASHCOM (Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Committee) departments of the relevant LGA and WASH in the communities. They all agreed and designed appropriate technology for water supply to each community and coordinate the construction and other functions. RUWASSA is to take responsibilities of communities below 5,000 populations.
There is also Anambra State Water Supply Services Regulatory Commission whose numerous objectives include ensuring adequate supply of water to consumers including low income or vulnerable consumers. They are to ensure that the rates and fees charged by water services providers are sufficient to finance their activities and allow for reasonable earnings for sufficient operation, safety, security, reliability and quality service in the production and delivery of water to consumers.
The law also empowered the state government to facilitate and coordinate the roles of ministries, departments and agencies as well as other stakeholders in the state water supply and sanitation services, while the ministry is to formulate policy, review, implement and monitor water resources management and related issues, liaise with the federal government, other state ministries, departments and agencies, LGAs, communities, international donor organisations and NGOs.
No implementation
Unfortunately, however, this law which also provides rights and obligations of water consumers, sanitation and environmental hygiene, among others, is not yet operational. Blueprint investigation revealed that apart from RUWASSA which is currently operational probably due to funding from European Union and UNICEF, the Anambra state Urban Water Asset Holdings Corporation provided to integrate the moribund water corporation, the STOWA and the Anambra State Water Supply Services Regulatory Commission have not been constituted since 2015 when the law came into force.
Notwithstanding all these, the state government had consistently captured the ministry, RUWASSA, STOWA, some water projects and water resources in its budget since 2012 till date. For instance, in 2013, the capital expenditure for water resources and rural development was N2,642,733,734.41; N3,985,000,000 in 2014; N1,512,280,000 in 2015; N1,663,507,996 in 2016; N1,746,683,435 in 2017; N1,203,600,000 in 2018; N892, 500,000 in 2019; while water resources and public utilities are N3.75bn in the 2020 budget estimate Governor Obiano submitted to the state House of Assembly on September 26, 2019.
Similarly, the Anambra State Ministry of Public Utilities and Water Resources (also known as Ministry of Public Utilities) in the following years had budget estimates of N4,789,290 in 2013; N130,500,000 in 2014; N150,000,000 in 2015; N156,750,023 in 2016; N 164,587,550 in 2017; N5,396,200,000 in 2018; N5,666,010,000 in 2019 and N5,949,310,500 in 2020.
Several attempts made by this paper to obtain information on this and other issues from the state government were not successful as at press time. Sometimes in August, Blueprint met with the state commissioner for information and public enlightenment, Mr C. Don Adinuba, to comment on this but was referred to the state commissioner for public utilities, Engr. Emeka Ezenwanne, unfortunately, the commissioner could not be accessed after several visits to his office since August till September 18, 2019. Ezenwanne, however, told Blueprint to return on Wednesday September 25th as he had granted several interviews that day. On September 25, he was not seen as at 12.30pm when our correspondent arrived. His staff told Blueprint to return on Friday 27th as he had gone to another official engagement and could only attend to people on that date.
On Friday 27, Blueprint repeated the visit to the office but Ezenwanne, after inquiring of the popularity of this paper in Anambra state and where the reporter resides, said he had spoken to many journalists and again, told this reporter to repeat his visit without providing any specific date and left him unattended to.
Reactions from people
Following the state government’s inability to invest on public water scheme, private individuals and politicians embarked on digging boreholes all over the streets for commercial and household uses. This also gave rise to the establishment of sachet water companies, among others, in the state.
Chief Nwoche Osi, chairman, Anambra State Water Corporation Welfare Association, while appealing to Governor Obiano and the Ministry of Public Utilities for the activation of the requisite institutions enshrined in the state water supply and sanitation law 2015, said the law would help to ease the sufferings of staff of the state water board, the poor and entire Anambra residents, if fully implemented.
Osi lamented that, “Anambra state had continued to live in chronic and dire shortage of potable drinking water with increasing economic and health burdens. This is so because the quality of water from the unregulated private borehole supplies is doubtful and had imposed additional financial burden which many of the populace cannot afford.
“The damage done on the environments and ground through indiscriminate drilling of boreholes cannot be overemphasised. The intervention of EU, UNICEF and other donor agencies in the water supply has no future management arrangement. The Greater Onitsha Water Supply scheme which was rehabilitated in 2014 had been vandalised due to the application of Public Private Partnership (PPP) in the state.”
Others appealed to Governor Obiano to implement the Industrial Arbitration Panel Award (IAP Award) of 2012 which AUPCTRE had approached Enugu Division of Industrial Court to direct the state government to effect the appropriate promotions and salary increments across board to all its workers in ANSWC as well as to pay pension and gratuity to the retired workers.
They also want the governor to restructure and reorient the Ministry of Public Utilities on its roles and functions as stated in the law, deploy the active staff of the corporation to the new UNAHC or other relevant ministries, department and agencies, transfer pensioners of the corporation to Anambra State Pension Board as stated in Section 154 (4) of WSS Law, rehabilitate the workers and the water supply facilities in the state.
Likely consequences
Meanwhile, Mr Chimezie Ibedu, a geologist, said, “Some inherent dangers with excess digging of borehole are our state is sitting on a massive underground water body. Every well sunk draw water from there. Excessive draw out in arid regions might cause acute depletion of the underground aquifer such that had caused environmental crisis presently in the Chad Basin. Our saving grace in Anambra-Imo River Basin however is proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, the Niger and its tributaries.
“Another danger is the rising risk of contamination. For instance, if the required distance from pit toilets, soak-away and industrial effluent disposal sites is not strictly observed, contamination may occur. If failed wells are not properly filled, it poses dander to children and animals. It may also lead to landslide knowing how prone to gully erosion our environment is.”
Also speaking, another geologist, Mr Collins Ekweali, said it is unhealthy not to have a water scheme. “Being that water is part of our everyday meal, when one is deprived of it, there is no way of saying that he is healthy. The absence of active water scheme in the state is actually not healthy.”
Ekweali, however, urged those executing borehole projects in the state to make use of professionals, because according to him, making use of quacks could lead to the provision of water contaminated by surface water run-off, infiltration and other sort of things which are unhealthy for humans.
This Investigative report was first published by the reporter on Blueprint newspaper and online.
This Investigative report was first published by the reporter on Blueprint newspaper and online.
Tags
Investigation