SOWEDA Realises FCFA 21 Million Water Supply Project In Bangem

/By Macdonald Ayang Okumb/

     Inhabitants of Muekan and Kobi in Ekambeng, Bangem sub-division, can once again enjoy drinkable pipe-borne water after an earlier project they had went comatose.

SOWEDA Officials At One Of  The Ekambeng Standtaps

     This follows the rehabilitation, by the South West Development Authority, SOWEDA, of a new water supply scheme that amounted to FCFA 21.58 million, taxes included. But it cost FCFA18 million net.

     A team of SOWEDA staff led by the institutions Director of Studies and Cooperation, Oben Ako, (representing the General Manager), was in Ekambeng last Friday for provisional handing over of the project. They say the final handing over is fixed for July of next year.

     The chief of the beneficiary community, His Royal Majesty Chief David Ngole, together with his people, were exceedingly elated to welcome the project and the team that came to hand it over to them. They heaped praises on SOWEDA for thinking about them. The chief said they were particularly overjoyed because the water scheme would not only serve the Muekan/Kobi people but the entire Ekambeng and even beyond.

     The SOWEDA GM’s representative said what SOWEDA has done for Ekambeng was only within the framework of its mission of engineering development and leveraging and making better the livelihood of the local populations. Water, he said, is a precious and indispensable resource; thus, he urged the people to judiciously manage the scheme so it can last longer.

     The project shall be managed by a water management committee whose members had been trained by SOWEDA officials on how to go about their assignment. The villagers were told they would, from time to time, contribute a token to sustain the project as well as compensate the volunteers trained for the purpose. SOWEDA also handed a long list of relevant working tools to them.

     SOWEDA’s Infrastructure Engineer, Stephen Ashu, while praising the contractor for a job well-done, also took time off to explain some technical details about the project. He said there are three stand taps with about 2.3 kilometres of pipeline.

      Representatives from the Regional Delegations of Energy and Water Resources and Public Contracts were also in Ekambeng for the project handing over.