Sylvanus Viashima, Jalingo
Taraba State is among the six states in the country that will benefit from the N23 billion intervention provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for Effective Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Services (E-WASH).
The General Manager of the state Water Board, Board, Sani Buba Siam disclosed this yesterday during a media round table organised for journalists in Jalingo.
He said that Taraba, Imo, Sokoto, Abia, Niger and Delta states were selected to benefit from the international agency after a competitive examination of indicated interests. Siam disclosed that the Taraba State Government had already granted the board partial autonomy and had commenced the legal process of making the agency a fully autonomous agency.
“Only one in every six persons living in Taraba State has access to potable water supply. This is a very disturbing statistics. The state government has intensified efforts to make sure that this trend is corrected. That is why this intervention by the USAID is such a priority to us.
“You (will) recall that there is currently an ongoing project funded by the African Development Bank in the area of water supply. This is aimed at ensuring at least eighty percent coverage of Jalingo.
‘‘However the state government feels that this is not enough and has come up with the Taraba water ways which is a state project to further boost the water supply to the state’’.Siam stated.