The Kwara House of Assembly on Wednesday summoned the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Water Resources, Dr Afolabi Ezekiel, and General Manager of the state-owned water corporation, Alhaji Tunde Yahaya, over the acute shortage of water in llorin.
The House gave the directive in its resolution after considering a motion on the need to improve on the palliative measures on water supply to residents of llorin metropolis.
The motion, which enjoyed the support of members, was sponsored by lsiaku Adam (APC, Edu Constituency) The Speaker, Dr Ali Ahmad, while reading the resolution of the House, said the two officials summoned would brief the lawmakers on the circumstances that led to a reduction in the number of water tankers supplying water to the state capital.
The two officials in charge of water administration in the state were directed to appear before the House Committee on Agriculture and Water Resources on Monday.
The House also directed the committee to brief the House on the status of work on the water works in all parts of llorin metropolis.
The committee has one week to present its report on the matter.
Also during Wednesday’s plenary, the House urged the state government to provide all the necessary logistic support to enhance smooth operation of the N-Power programme in the state.
This followed a resolution on a motion on reviewing the status of N-Power in the state sponsored by Abdulrofiu Abdulrahman (APC, Ilorin-North-West Constituency).
In the resolution, the house said the state would benefit from an inflow of about N220 million every month from the Federal Government to assist in solving the problem of unemployment.

The Global Rundown Water shortages play a role in ongoing unrest across Iran.
Skirmishes over water begin in Cape Town, South Africa, as the city approaches “Day Zero.” Malaria becomes the latest disease to stalk war-torn Yemen as the country’s healthcare and sanitation systems collapse.
Famine looms in the Democratic Republic of Congo amid conflict, displacement, and aid shortages.
Egypt insists that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam will not ruin the country’s relations with Ethiopia.
“The Nile basin enjoys great resources and capabilities that makes it a source of interconnection, building and development, not a source of conflict.” –Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, President of Egypt, in reference to the recent dispute between Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Nile river.
President Sisi insisted that the dam would not ruin Egypt’s relations with Ethiopia, despite contention over the project in recent weeks.
Reuters Latest WaterNews from Circle of Blue Deadly Legionella Bacteria Are Common in U.S. Building Plumbing – Water samples from cooling towers across the country show signs of the bacteria.
By The Numbers 14 years Length of Iran’s crippling drought, which has played a major role in the country’s unrest.
The pattern in Iran–water shortage followed by widespread unrest–serves as an example of what could happen in other countries facing water scarcity.
CBS NewsIn context: Cape Town’s “day zero” approaches.

About 200 schools face closure over water crisis in Baringo county.
On Friday, Pokot residents stormed Riongo Primary School in Tiaty subcounty, demanding immediate closure of the school because of lack of water.
Teacher Victor Nakomer confirmed there has been water scarcity in the school.
"The taps are dry.
Nakomer said rains stopped in May last year and the pupils are hungry since the government is yet to roll out the school feeding programme this year.
“The lives of our children are at stake.
If nothing is done to address the matter, then it is better the school is closed," he said.
Riongo primary is among 11 schools facing imminent closures in Silale ward alone.
A total of 118 schools face similar challenge in the entire seven wards in Tiaty subcounty.
Other affected schools in Tiaty are Orision, Nasorot, Akule, Toplen, Silale, Napeikore, Nalekat, Napukut, Kitailem, Cheptamas, Kangoria, Nakoko, Cheptunoyo and Chemukutan.

KOCHI: Ernakulam district which received normal rainfall during the southwest and northeast monsoon seasons is reeling under water shortage even before the onset of summer.
The Collector has ordered action after he received several complaints from different quarters on exploitation of water sources.Water from abandoned quarries, canals and private wells are being tapped and sold for drinking.
But we have to remain vigilant as the real summer is still two months away”, said Antony John, Kothamangalam MLA.
Ernakulam MLA Hibi Eden said that areas in his constituency were reeling under severe shortage, especially Vaduthala, Pachalam, Chittor and Cheranellore areas.
“The Kerala Water Authority which is supposed to tackle it is not doing its job properly and the KWA system is not effective.
For Kochi city area, the drinking water pumping is mainly done from Thammanam and Pachalam pump houses of KWA, but it is done only on alternate days.
So there are a lot of disruptions in drinking water supply,” said Hibi Eden.
“Even that scheme which is supposed to pump 100 mld water is functioning only up to 50 percent of its capacity,” Hibi added.
An expert pointed out that people should make conscious use of water in due to the scarcity.
The situation warranted conservation of the available water resources and a culture of using water in a judicious manner, he added.

The civic agency is setting up as many as 20 Reverse Osmosis (RO) drinking water plants at various locations in the city.
Sources pointed out that MCC was installing RO plants in those areas that had a history of scarcity of drinking water.
Mayor MJ Ravikumar confirmed to The Times of India that MCC had floated tenders for new RO plants.
"Our aim is to ensure that no ward in the city faces the problem of water scarcity this summer.
Currently, MCC operates 25 RO units across the city.
The additional 20 units will come up in areas that often grapple with water scarcity in the summer months," Ravikumar said, adding that the new plants would be operational before the onset of summer.
He pointed out that the 25 RO units that were already operating in the city had helped bring down dependence on private water suppliers drastically.
"Compared to private mineral water suppliers, the RO units offer potable water at an affordable price," the officer added.
The proposed RO plants must ensure water supply for at least 12 hours a day.
Some of the existing plants operate for just a few hours a day at a time.

Climate Change, Combating Desertification and Drought, Environment, Europe, Featured, Food & Agriculture, Headlines, Natural Resources, Water & Sanitation BRATISLAVA, Jan 22 2018 (IPS) – A landmark programme to combat drought set to be implemented in the small Central European country of Slovakia could be an inspiration for other states as extreme weather events become more frequent, the environmental action group behind the plan has said.
The H2odnota v krajine (Value of H2O in the country) plan, which is expected to be approved by the Slovak government this Spring, includes a range of measures which, unlike many plans for drought, is proactive and focuses on prevention and mitigation instead of reacting to drought once it has occurred.
He told IPS: “A few of the measures in this plan have been adopted in other countries as part of climate change adaptation, but Slovakia is the first country in the region to have this kind of action plan to combat drought.
“It is a landmark plan…other countries could look at this and be inspired and say, yes, this is something we should copy.” The focus of the plan is on preventive measures in a number of areas, specifically agriculture and forestry, urban landscape, water management, research and environmental education.
It also covers water management, dealing with preparatory work for reconstruction of smaller reservoirs of water and green infrastructure, including wetlands restoration.
“Other countries have plans for drought, but in some, such as the USA, measures are related to dealing with drought after the event.
Last year, some parts of the country saw the driest first half of the year in over six decades while there was a very severe drought during 2015 when there were 23 days classified as super-tropical, i.e. with maximum temperatures of over 35 degrees Celsius.
As the plan is focused on prevention, its effectiveness during times of drought may not be immediately noticed by many.
But while the adoption of the plan has been welcomed and it seems set to benefit Slovaks even in times when there is no drought, the need for it at all highlights growing concerns over the rapid changes in the country’s climate and what they could mean for its water supplies and use.
Slovakia isn’t spared from drought.” More frequent and intense droughts are almost certain in the future, climatologists predict, as the climate in Slovakia changes.

According to Planning and Development Division sources, per capita water availability at the time of creation of Pakistan was 5,600 cubic meters, but presently it stands at only 1,000 cubic meters and it will be further reduced in next couple of years, as Pakistan has failed to improve its water storage capacity in the country.
Despite claims by the government to construct storage for 5.218 million acre feet of water during 2013 to 2018, the government has been able to manage storage capacity for 3.54 million acre feet of water.
41.422 billion in PSDP for water sector which was 18 percent of the total development allocations but the present government reduced it in its first year 2013-2014 when its allocation for water resources was just 10 percent of the total development allocations.
During the year, 2015-16, this allocation was further reduced to just 4 percent of the total allocation for the development.
It has been planned by the Planning Commission that concrete measures would be taken to increase water storage capacity from the current 30 days to 45 days by 2018 and 90 days by 2025.
Due to lack of water storages in Pakistan, there is no additional water to be injected into the system and there is no feasible intervention leading to make more water available for the consumers.
Due to lack of proper facilities for consuming water, about two million acres of land has been lost to sea water intrusion in coastal areas of Sindh province, and the problem is getting even worse due to inadequate environmental flow and allied issues.
Edible oil is one of the major imports of Pakistan, and with fair and integrated management of water can cut this import bill largely and save billions of dollars being used for the import of the oil.
At present due to shortage of water, the country is even forced to import cotton and vegetables.
There is also shortage of clean drinking water and about 80 percent of diseases in the country are water borne claiming 40 percent of death.

MUMBAI: The parched Marathwada region of Maharashtra, which had to be supplied water in railway wagons just a couple of years ago, would get an ambitious Marathwada Water Grid project to tackle problems of drinking water and drought.
A Memorandum of Understanding to this effect was signed in presence of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu between the water supply department of Maharashtra government and Mekorot Development & Enterprise Ltd of Israel on Thursday.
“I had seen their technology during my visit to Israel in 2015 and we announced plans to develop the water-grid for drought-prone Marathwada in 2016, when it saw the worst drought.
The water-grid project is estimated to cost `10,000 crore and aims at interlinking major reservoirs in Marathwada region to enable scientific and cost-effective use of available water, especially during drought.
“We are planning to get everything right from the design (for the water-grid) from Israel.
The Israeli company we signed the MoU with will offer its expertise at deployment of technologies to plug loss of water due to evaporation and lopsided distribution of water due to erratic rainfall or inconsistent distribution of rainfall in the catchment regions of dams,” Fadnavis said.
However, he didn’t reveal the detailed time-frame of the project.
“We expect the work to be completed faster,” he said.
In 2016, more than 4,000 tankers had to be deployed for supplying water in Marathwada region due to severe water scarcity.
This included supplying drinking water through train to Latur — one of the worst-hit districts of Marathwada — from Miraj, which was 300 km away.

Most populous areas of block Drabshalla in Kishtwar district are facing severe water scarcity due to the alleged mismanagement of concerned department and also due to most of the streams in the having dried up.
They said that during the election campaign all politicians visited the area and assured them to provide drinking water but after the culmination of the elections no one turned up to address the sufferings of people, they have maintained.
Some women said that they have to travel miles for fetching the drinking water.
The taps are running dry from past several months and only few drops of water released from concerned reservoirs after a long gap of days,” said a local woman.
Failure of authorities to restore the water supply in the areas has triggered anger and frustration among the locals.
“Despite our repeated requests the PHE department has failed to restore the water supply to our area.
The aggrieved inhabitants alleged the authorities of turning a deaf ear to a long time and repeated requests and appealed the higher authorities PHE to look into the matter and direct the concerned authorities to restore the water supply at the earliest.
The residents complained that they are also facing power shortage but the government is not paying any heed to mitigate their sufferings.
The Indian and Pakistani troops continued to trade heavy gunfire and shelling along the international border in Jammu for the second consecutive day Friday, leaving two civilians, a BSF man and an army soldier dead, officials said.
Several Kashmiri Pandit organisations Friday held protest against “communal forces and militant outfits responsible for the killings of members of minority communities.

Hubballi: There is an in the twin cities due to the government‘s negligence, alleged leader , who represents the Central assembly constituency.
He was speaking to reporters after a meeting with officials of the , water board, and other government departments on Tuesday.
“After receiving hundreds of complaints, we held a meeting with officials where we learnt that uncontrolled BRTS works are affecting water supply to the city.
Shettar said that chief minister is not approving Rs 24 crore project which is aims at lifting an additional 40 MLD of water from river to meet the drinking water needs of the twin cities.
“We have Rs 17 crore with the water board and can mobilize the remaining amount from the HDMC.
The government need not sanction a single paisa, but has just give nod to the project.
Shettar said that in December, 2017, Siddarmaiah promised the release of Rs 130 crore for the pending pension amount of retired HDMC employees in 15 days.
He warned that the BJP will hold another agitation against the state government if it continued neglecting the twin cities.
Corporators Mahesh Burli and Umeshgouda Koujageri were present on the occasion.
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