FCT, foreign agency partner on $421,000 water equipment

THE Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Water Board has commenced a partnership with the Japanese International Co-operation Agency (JICA) with the goal to reduce the amount of non-revenue water supplied to consumers.

This means that the two organisations are working together through the use of equipment and technical know-how to reduce revenue loss that hitherto occur because of water leakages and supplies made to consumers which are not billed, and therefore do not generate revenue for government.

To this end, JICA has donated equipment such as ultrasound water-flow meters, leak detectors, pipe detectors, test meters, data loggers and two vehicles worth $421,000 with the technical expertise to help the FCT Water Board personnel.

At the presentation of the equipment in Abuja, JICA’s Chief Representative to Nigeria, Hirotaka Nakamura, said the project started with some pilot metering areas in places where there are no functional or reliable system in place for measuring water losses, adding that the water-flow meters would be installed to measure inflows and outflows of water.

He said: “The project has advanced step by step and we have been able to commence the construction of meter chambers, installation of bulk meters and capacity-building through local training workshops as well as sector-focused trainings in Japan for FCT Water Board personnel.”

He implored that good care be taken of the equipment.

According to Nakamura, water loss or non-revenue water is the biggest challenge to the efficiency of a water company, caused by leakages from pipes and illegal connections as well as under-registration of water meters, adding: “In the FCT, non-revenue water is at a conservative 42 per cent and bill collection efficiency of only 35 per cent.