By Correspondent in Ilorin.
The management of Hydro-Electric Power Producing Areas Commission (HYPPADEC) have raised alarm over prevalence of water borne diseases like hepatitis and others in riverine areas of Kwara state.
The Managing Director of HYPPADEC), Alhaji Abubakar Yelwa,stated this in
Ilorin during a stakeholders meeting with members of the HYPPADEC communities on Saturday.
The managing director,who attributed the menace to shortage of portable water in the affected communities, promised that the commission would sink motorised and hand-pump boreholes in the communities to check the problem.
“Our technical partners will provide solar-powered water electric supply in the affected communities,”he further promised.
He added that the organization was also collaborating with the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) to train no fewer than 980 Kwara youths in one year on poultry and fish farming,furniture making among others.
Said added: “The training will centre of poultry, fish farming, furniture making etc. It is going to be about 55 trades for every youth to choose from.
“When the youth are under training, we are going to support them with
stipends. Graduates will receive N15,000 per month, diploma holders
and others will receive N10,000 monthly. This will at least, help them to go the training centres.
“Seventy per cent of the beneficiaries will come from HYPADEC catchment communities, 10 per cent of the youths will be persons with disability, 30 per cent for women and the rest will be a fight for all.
” We want to make
sure that people with disabilities and women are given adequate attention.
Within the classification of the exercise, HND and first degree graduates must be 35 per cent of the beneficiaries, NCE and ordinary national diploma holders will take 30 percent, while WAEC holders and others from the informal sector will be 35 percent.
“The training is going to be between three and six months, based on the
trade the benefiting youths have chosen.
“If the exercise is successful, we will train another batch of youths,
so that in every six months, we will be able to graduate 490 youths
from Kwara state that will be able to stand on their own.
They will not only earn a living on their own, they will perhaps, be employers of labour. We hope the youth will utilise this opportunity.
“HYPADEC will also donate motorcycles to the communities and
traditional institutions, for the support of local vigilance groups.
Some of the vigilance groups embark on their activities through
motorcycles. “But the largest donation is going to be from our
technical partners and I assure you, between now and middle of next
year, the youth transformation will commence.”
In his remarks, Kwara state Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq,
represented by Secretary to the state government (SSG), Prof Sha’aba
Jibril, said that “many of the HYPADEC communities are exposed to
environmental degradation, flooding and continued to suffer untold
hardship, adding that their livelihood is solely dependent on fishing and
farming and therefore vulnerable.
“It is my hope that the perennial problem of power supply, disaster
such as lead poisoning and erosion, will soon be a thing of the past.
“We do acknowledge and owe lots of gratitude to our traditional
institution and other stakeholders within the HYPADEC states that
have been passionate about this movement from inception till date,”the governor said.
Edited by Dada Ahmed.
