Uzodinma urges FG to establish 10mw hydro-power plant in Imo

…Rehabilitates Inyishi farm settlement

Governor Hope Uzodinma has urged the Federal Government to establish a 10MGWs hydro-power plant in Imo State to facilitate a hitch-free supply of portable water for the people, especially, those residing in Owerri Municipality and its environs.

He made the request when Joseph Terlumun Utsev minister of Water Resources and Sanitation and his team paid him a courtesy call at the Government House, Owerri.

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Governor Uzodinma told the minister that the 10MGW hydro-power plant would help to solve the problems associated with portable water shortages in the state especially in Owerri, just as he sought the minister’s intervention in completing some of the ongoing water projects in Imo within the year or early next year.

Uzodinma, who expressed joy that the visit would add value to the interest and welfare of Imo people, commended President Bola Tinubu on his efforts towards the recovery of the economy of the country, congratulating the All Progressives Congress (APC) on her successes in the just concluded off- cycle governorship elections in Imo and Kogi States.

“The minister’s visit is a clear demonstration that he is out to work and that he is about the first minister who has taken time to visit the parastatals and agencies under his ministry, particularly as it concerns Imo State since the constitution of the New Federal Executive Council under President Tinubu,” Uzodinma said.

Uzodinma also said, “The journey between the federal ministry of water resources and Imo State has been very interesting as the ministry has done a lot to provide access to quality water in the state.”

The governor stated that value addition has been added to the state through the implementation of the different water schemes since he came on board few the years ago, saying that he has appreciated and acknowledged the interventions the state government has received in the area of water provision.

He noted that by 2020 when he assumed office, the whole of Owerri Municipal council was flooded during the rains which made access to portable water difficult. And to salvage the situation, his government carried out a survey, and embarked on the building of an underground balloon technology-driven drainage system that made piping and evacuation of flood water easy.

Uzodimma commended the minister on the various World Bank intervention programmes, particularly in the areas of E-WASH-Programme, HYGIENE Programme, stressing that Imo has been able to benefit from USAID in the rehabilitation of the state’s major water scheme (Otamiri Water Scheme).

He assured the minister that the government of Imo State was ready to work with his team “under a constructive partnership,” that would make land available as requested, but appealed to them to engage Imo youths in farm work under a public private partnership (PPP).

He also drew attention of the minister on the need to rehabilitate the Inyishi Farm Settlement that has been abandoned for a long time, pleading with him to do something about it.

Meanwhile, the minister had said that the main purpose of their visit was to “undertake on the spot assessment of projects and programmes that the ministry of water resources and sanitation is undertaking through the Anambra/Imo River Basin Development Authority in the catchment states.”

He drew the Uzodinma’s attention to the ministry’s intervention projects in Imo, Anambra, Abia, Enugu and Ebonyi States which covered water supply, irrigation schemes, dams and reservoirs, sanitation facilities and erosion control structures.

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Utsev reminded Governor Uzodinma that President Tinubu had tasked them on the 12 River Basin Development Authorities (RBDA), to put 500,000 hectares of irrigable land for cultivation, in order to produce more foods to feed the nation.

He also said that for the ministry of water resources and sanitation to meet its target, more lands were needed from the states and communities to expand their irrigation coverage, hence he appealed to Uzodinma to grant their request for more agricultural lands in Imo State and also, to give titles for the ones already acquired.