FCT Water Board Loses N400m Annually to Theft
Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Water Board has said it is losing between N350million and N400 million per annual as unremitted revenue because of leakages and unwholesome practices.
The General Manager of the FCT Water Board, Tauheed Amusan, disclosed this yesterday while addressing journalists.
He said although non-revenue water is a global issue, the rate at which it is experienced in the FCT is abnormal and worrisome.
According to him, “You can’t segregate it; you can only do a small analogy, we have the capacity of producing 30,000 cubic meters per hour and averagely because we cannot complain, as we just push 15-16 million. If you look at the cost of 16,000, it is N750 million, what do we get in revenue? We get about N250 million which is a loss of about 60 percent.”
Amusan said 60 per cent of water produced in Abuja is not accounted for, and is what is lost to vandalism, sharp practices and unwillingness of individuals and organisations that do not want to pay.
He lamented that while huge amount of money was being spent on maintaining all major sources of water supply, including the lower Usuma Dam and trunk lines, certain individuals and organisations had continued to break its pipes and engage in illegal connections.
He said Abuja was facing water scarcity because only two of the eight loops envisaged under the city masterplan had been completed under phase one, adding the water board will cater for three million people when the master plan is completed.
Amusan said: “One of the challenges we have is a lot of illegal connections in our trunk loops. Abuja’s water system designed to deliver treated water through the tanks, but we have a situation where some people are connected to the trunks before it gets to the tanks.
“And this compromises what we have in
the tank. We are gradually disconnecting these illegal connections. When we do that the tanks will be better and we will be able to deliver water to various destinations.”
