Vincent Toritseju
Lagos — In a bid to meet its contractual obligations to port concessionaires and vessels calling at the nation’s seaports, the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, has concessioned its water treatment plant at the Tin-Can Island Port in Lagos.
Speaking at the handing over ceremony of the facility, Managing Director of the authority, Dr. Abdulkadir Dantsoho said that the concession of the water treatment plant in Tin-Can I sland port and other ports across the was due to the necessity most the plans have been moribund for decades.
Danthoso who represented by the Assistant General Manager Engineering also said that the more these plants remain idle, the more agency is losing revenue noting vessels that calls at the ports do not always get fresh water and this has given rise to black market water business.
He said: “The concession of the water plant in Tin-can and Apapa and other similar ports across the country is actually out of necessity because most of our water treatment plant have gone moribund for decades and by allowing them to continue to remain moribund without putting adding value to them, the government or NPA is losing revenue.
‘This is because most vessels that comes into Nigerian ports always want fresh water to replenish their stock and most cases they get water from third parties who bring water in water tanks which often times is enough.
“Following this development, the NPA now capitalized on the National Policy on Public Private Partnership to structure a concession to outsource the management, operation and maintenance of the water plants for efficiency. And the process went to Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, ICRC and the Federal Executive Council which later approved the concession for a tenure of 15 years.
There are certain obligations on the part of the concessionaire as well as on the part of the NPA, the concessionaire has met all the condition required for the agreement and part of the obligation of the concessionaire is to transform the water treatment plant, rehabilitate it, maintain it, bring more equipment and produce water for vessels which will lead to earning income in Dollars.
“NPA on its part is supposed to provide a level playing field by making the policies of government to be friendlier to all port operators. This concession is only for Tin-Can, we have a similar arrangement for Apapa Port.
Similarly, Managing Director of the Sandust Water Treatment Project, SWTP, Concessionaires of the facility, Mrs Angela Attah said that the Sandust Tin-Can Water Project is a 16-year concession granted by the Nigerian Ports Authority for N11billion.
Attah also said the STWP is currently in discussion with the International Finance Corporation, IFC, Union Bank, Stanbic Infrastructure Fund, and First Bank, and Chapel Hill
For the funding of the project, Attah said; “Some of it will be equity, that is why we brought all the different financing parties here some of it will be and others will
She adding that the project aims to design, finances, operates, manage, and maintain the water supply system at TCIP for the 16-year period of the concession.
Attah also said that a water treatment plant when operational will increase the capacity of the water treatment plant from 50 cubic meters to 100 cubic meters per hour.
