By Festus Fifen.

The Nigeria Federal Capital Territory Administration FCTA says it has commenced disconnection of all illegal connections to its public water lines to save about N400 million which it loses to illegal water users in the territory.

The General Manager, FCT Water Board, Engr. Tauheed Amusan made this disclosure in Abuja when he briefed newsmen on some of the accomplishments and challenges in the outgoing year..

Engr. Amusan lamented the huge amount of money being spent on maintaining all major sources of water supply, including the lower Usuma Dam and trunk lines noting that certain individuals and organisations have continued to break its pipes and engage in illegal connections.

He noted that the Lower Usuma Dam, which is the major source of water supply in Abuja, has the capacity to generate 20,000 cubic litres of water per hour, but only about 15,000 to 16,000 cubic litres are being pushed out currently .

According to him, regardless of the efforts that the government makes to subsidize water supply, there are individuals and organizations that do not want to pay.

In his words, ” One of the challenges we have, is a lot of illegal connections in our trunk loops. Abuja’s water system is designed to deliver treated water through the tanks, but we have a situation where some people are connected to the trunks before it gets to the tanks.

” And this compromises what we have in the tank. We are gradually disconnecting these illegal connections. When we do that the tanks will be better and we will be able to deliver water to various destinations.

” There are also the challenges of leakages, vandalization and many more”, he added. The