The Hydro-Electric Power Producing Areas Commission (HYPPADEC) yesterday raised the alarm over the prevalence of water-borne diseases including hepatitis in riverine areas of Kwara State.
The commission attributed this to the shortage of potable water in the affected communities.
The agency’s Managing Director Abubakar Yelwa stated this in Ilorin, the state capital, during a stakeholder meeting with members of the HYPPADEC communities.
Yelwa said the commission would sink motorised and hand-pump boreholes in the communities.
“Our technical partners will provide solar-powered electric supply in the affected communities,” he added.
The HYPPADEC MD revealed that it was collaborating with the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) to train no fewer than 980 Kwara youths in one year.
Yelwa said: “The training will centre on poultry, fish farming, furniture making, etc. There are going to be about 55 trades for each 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 to the training centres.
“70 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 women and the rest will be a fight for all. We want to make sure that the disabled and women are given adequate attention.
“HND and first-degree graduates must be 35 per cent of the beneficiaries, NCE and ordinary national diploma holders will take 30 per cent, WAEC holders and the informal sector will be 35 per cent.
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“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 also perhaps, be employers of labour. We hope the youth will utilise this opportunity.”
He added that HYPADEC would 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,” he said.
Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, represented by the secretary to the state government (SSG), Prof Sha’aba Jibril said many of the HYPADEC communities were exposed to environmental degradation, flooding “and continue to suffer untold hardship since their livelihood is solely dependent on fishing and farming. They are therefore vulnerable.”
Jibril added: “It is my hope that the perennial problem of power supply, disasters 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 institutions and other stakeholders within the HYPADEC states that have been passionate about this movement from inception till date.”
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