Governor Adeleke Moves To Fast Track Ilesa Water Project

The Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, has taken immediate steps to fast track resumption of works on the Ilesa water project.

This is as Adeleke harped on the issue of federal collaboration on the Ile Ife, Iwo, and Ede Water supply projects.

At a closed-door meeting with the Minister of Water Resources in Abuja, Adeleke expressed the desire of his administration to resolve all project implementation hiccups delaying the Ilesa Water project.

He also expressed his readiness for a tripartite consultation among the state government, the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and the Federal Ministry of Finance on the issue.

The Governor who told the Minister, Adamu Abubakar that such consultation will unravel details of the contractual and technical issues delaying the completion of the project added that the state committee had discovered a lot of irregularities in the contract implementation, leading to the suspension of the project consultant.

Governor Adeleke further opened discussions on federal partnership for the revitalization of Iwo and Ede Water projects.

He described both schemes as regional water supplies designed to supply high-population areas.

"Osun is ready to join the league of states partnering with the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and multilateral bodies to upgrade some of our waterworks.

"We will submit proposals for Iwo and Ede water projects. We also seek accelerated action on the ongoing Ile Ife project," the Governor stated. 

Responding, the Water Resources Minister, Alhaji Adamu Abubakar expressed the readiness of the Ministry to meet the technical committee from Osun state to iron out issues delaying the project even as he agreed with the Governor that the contractor failed to perform in line with contractual obligations.

The Minister noted that the Islamic Development Bank has chosen to re-advertise the contract because of the non-performance of the contractor, pledging to open up on the details when the state committee arrives in Abuja.

He however lamented the pollution of the water source at Ilesa by activities of gold miners, urging the state to intensify its efforts at sanitizing the mining environment.

On international and federal interventions for Ede and Iwo water works, the Minister requested for technical proposals, listing many ongoing areas of involvement that favour brown fields waterworks like that of Ede and Iwo.

On the Ile-Ife waterworks, he said the project is billed for completion before the May 29 transition date to a new government.