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NDDC partners EU for sustainable water projects in Niger Delta

By Anietie Akpan
16 January 2019   |   3:16 am
The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has disclosed partnership with the European Union, (EU) to revive abandoned water infrastructure across the region. The Special Assistant on Communications to the NDDC Chairman, Clara Braide, who made the disclosure in a statement in Calabar yesterday, said it would be done through the Niger Delta Support Programme (NDSP).…

NDDC

The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has disclosed partnership with the European Union, (EU) to revive abandoned water infrastructure across the region.

The Special Assistant on Communications to the NDDC Chairman, Clara Braide, who made the disclosure in a statement in Calabar yesterday, said it would be done through the Niger Delta Support Programme (NDSP).

This came after the Chairman of the NDDC Governing Board, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, held a strategy meeting with relevant directors of the commission.

Other officials of the EU and the NDSP3 pilot project at the NDDC headquarters in Port Harcourt also attended the meeting.

Ndoma-Egba stressed the importance of institutionalising community-based management structure for the improvement and sustainability of basic infrastructure in the Niger Delta region.

He assured that NDDC was committed to developing workable models for guaranteeing sustainability in its water projects.

The NDDC chairman noted that both the commission and the EU had earlier developed a framework to ensure community ownership of water projects in the region.

He added that what was necessary now was to facilitate the implementation of the recommendations made by the partners.

The NDDC chairman promised that the plan to set up impress account to facilitate effective and timely implementation of NDDC-NDSP3 pilot project would be addressed urgently.

He said the commission would communicate with the Ministry of Budget and National Planning to on the recommendations of the development partners.

One of the officials of the NDSP3 pilot project, Prof. Johnson Otun, stressed the need to operationalise recommendations contained in the communiqué signed late last year by NDDC and EU officials, in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

Otun recalled the agreement at the meeting in Uyo to establish and operationalise a community-based management structure, as a prequalification condition for any community to be a beneficiary of NDDC water infrastructure.

Team leader of the NDSP, Albert Achten, said the collaborative efforts between the NDDC and the EU-NDSP3 would help to build institutional capacity.

He stressed that it would also provide greater opportunity to show strong commitments for partnerships and solicitation for future ways of accessing more funds for infrastructural development of the region.

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