As part of efforts to ensure healthy living and encourage improved sanitary conditions of those internally displaced persons (IDPs), Eni, through its Nigerian subsidiary, Agip Energy and Natural Resources (AENR), in partnership with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have commissioned a model solar-powered borehole in Waru, Abuja.
The borehole willprovide safe and clean water to the IDPs and the host community of an estimated 4000 persons,including the IDPs that fled insurgency in North East Nigeria.
This initiative is specifically geared towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with particular emphasis on SDG1 – No poverty; SDG 2 – Zero hunger; SDG6 – clean water and sanitation; SDG13 – climate Action and SDG17 – public-private partnerships for the goals.
The borehole is electrically and solar powered with a photovoltaic system and is equipped with areverse-osmosis plant to treat water to ensure it is potable. During the project implementation, the local authorities were involved to provide support in training and sensitizing the IDPs and the host community on water management and practices for long-term sustainability.
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This is the first of 10 boreholes to be implemented within the framework of “Access to Water” project by FAO and Eni in the joint initiative to promote secure access to water in selected communities in the country, to which a collaborative agreement was earlier signed.
The project aims to contribute to the humanitarian interventions for internally displaced persons and host communities suffering from the crisis in North East Nigeria.
The FAO country representative in Nigeria and ECOWAS, Suffyan Koroma, said, “the plan is to ensure that displaced persons and host communities have access to safe and adequate water for use in the households and for agriculture. This collaborative effort is geared towards guaranteeing sustainable food and nutrition security to the beneficiary community.”
Lorenzo Fiorillo, AENR managing director, said: “This project is the outcome of our fruitful cooperation with Nigerian authorities and FAO, and leverages our technical skills to improve the living conditions of the Waru community, allowing access to clean water. It is based on our belief that private Companies can and should cooperate with the public sector to play an active role insustainable development.”
Eni has been present in Nigeria since 1962 through its subsidiaries NAOC (Nigerian Agip OilCompany), AENR (Agip Energy and Natural Resources) and NAE (Nigerian Agip Exploration), with both onshore and offshore activities.
Eni’s sustainability effort in Nigeria includes activities relating to agricultural development, access to energy, health, training, environmental protection, as well asspecific initiatives for stakeholder engagement in local communities and promotion of transparency.
The FAO on the other hand marked its 40th year of officially establishing a representation in Nigeria this year, though its activities in Nigeria dates back to the 1950s.
The organization working with relevant ministries at the national and sub-national levels, has continued to provide strategic support to national development programmes and strategies aimed at reducing poverty, improving food and nutrition security and natural resources management.
