The Commissioner for Water Resources in Cross River, Bassey Mensah, has said that aging water facilities are limiting the performance of the state’s Water Board.

Mr Mensah said this on Saturday in Calabar during a stakeholders’ engagement organised by the board to commemorate the World Water Day.

The theme for this year’s celebration is “Glacier Preservation.”

The event comes up every March 22 to create awareness about water and inspire actions to tackle global water shortages.

The commissioner expressed concern over how people still queue up at commercial borehole points to buy water due to the shortage of supply from the water board.

He said, “In the 1970s, we fetched from public pumps and there should be no reason for system failure that made it difficult for us to access potable water. Cross River saw ahead and  established the best water facility in the nation but  it could not manage it because of erratic power supply. We also have nine treatment plants.

“The Calabar plant alone can feed four other Local Government Areas but the pipes laid 22 years ago are old and many had even been vandalised.”

Mr Mensah said that the state government was taking steps to revive the water board by putting together a Cross River Water Bill already passed by the  House of Assembly and awaiting the governor’s assent.

He said that immediately the water bill was agreed to, the water commission would into full implementation.

He stated, “This will disallow anyone to just  drill boreholes without proper assessment, which is dangerous to the environment.”

The General Manager, Cross River Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency, Sunday Oko, said that providing potable water was gradually becoming a challenge, especially in the rural communities.

Mr Oko described rural communities as the “national headquarters of open defecation,” which finds its way back into the water bodies that the people consume.

He added that Obanliku LGA was the first to attain the Open Defecation Free status but things were gradually going bad again.

He said that it was not enough to provide facilities but “the facilities need to be maintained by all and not vandalised.”

Appealing to the governor to assent to the water bill, he urged all hands to be on deck for the preservation and protection of potable drinking water.

“Activities like open defecation, excessive mining and many other activities inimical to the environment are also negatively affecting potable water supply; we need to stop,” he said. 

(NAN)