The Federal Ministry of Water Resources on Monday identified insecurity and theft of water pumps as significant challenges to providing potable water supply in rural areas.

In an interview in Abuja, Isaiah Ademoroti, the ministry’s Deputy Director, Rural Water Supply, said the challenges in implementing the projects were identified through effective monitoring and evaluation, with solutions already being proffered for better planning.

“Due to the delay in handing over some completed water points, we have seen the theft of pumps at various stages.

“Most of their targets is stealing the pumps because they can easily get them and sell them off.

“For instance, something we are buying for almost N1 million, they may sell them off for between N200,000 and N400,000,” he said.

Mr Ademoroti said the ministry always ensured the final completion of all water schemes before being paid.

He said this gave the contractors a vast responsibility to secure the schemes from theft before handing them over to communities.

“In the cost of implementing the first phase of the project, we had to design a protection method for the pumps with the contractors, in which an iron concrete is used and sealed up in the ground.

“This makes it difficult for them to be stolen, so to break such concrete, it will take many hours.”

The deputy director said it was difficult to get to some hard-to-reach communities due to insecurity.

(NAN)