Lagos — As a way of ensuring good health and well-being for all, and enhancing access to clean water, TotalEnergies and partners has provided two solar-powered borehole and a water treatment plant to the Nawfia community in Anambra state.
The project commissioned and handed over on Friday saw the community gaining access to clean and treated water, which would in turn reduce water borne diseases and improve their health and overall well-being.
Presenting the keynote address on behalf of Mike Sangster, the Country Chair of TotalEnergies Upstream Companies in Nigeria, Funminiyi Odetayo, DGM Technical Services, said the completion and commissioning of the project is in furtherance of the Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives of its deepwater operations.
According to her, the projects scattered across the country were borne out of the need to mitigate the gaps in qualitative and technical education, maternal and child health, access to clean water and women and youth empowerment.
“The projects are in congruence with the related United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The locations of these projects have also been very carefully chosen for maximum impact, coming from a need assessment carried out before the deployment.
“As already mentioned, the project we are commissioning today is one of the several projects being deployed across the entire country. Unfortunately, because of the Covid-19 pandemic we could not be physically present with you today. However, we have adopted this efficient and effective remote commissioning strategy to ensure delivery of all completed projects. I thank our senior partners, NNPC, and our PSC partners, SAPETRO, PRIME and CNOOC, who have joined us in providing the means, the processes and the resources that enabled us to deploy these local development projects. I also thank our several stakeholders including the State & Local Governments, beneficiary institutions and the Project Managers for their support. As we hand over the project to you today, we implore you to ensure its sustainable use to impact on the people positively. The sustainability barometer shall be seen during our Impact Assessment Exercise, when we will come back to check how this project has helped and improved the impact of the hospital and lives of the benefitting community,” she said.
Speaking on behalf of Bala M. WUNTI, General Group Manager, National Petroleum Investment Management Services, NAPIMS, Joy Eguahon, said the completion and commissioning of the project was designed to mitigate the hardship faced by the locals especially women and children in the area In obtaining clean and potable water.
“In NNPC, our vision for social intervention is to continue to operate in an ethical and sustainable manner and deal with the environment and social impacts occasioned by our activities. We pride ourselves in our slogan “we touch your lives in many positive ways”, hence the approval for the deployment of various CSR projects by our operators across the country for maximum impact. NNPC along with its partners have implemented various projects in the areas of education (building and equipping of schools/classrooms, laboratories, donation of books, scholarships, Quiz competitions, etc.) skill acquisitions and economic empowerment, healthcare, solar power and other infrastructural intervention projects.
“These projects were borne out of the need to mitigate the gaps in Health Care, Quality Education, Water, and Women & Youth Empowerment in line with the relevant Millennium Development Goals (MDG). NNPC and its Partners are socially responsible organisations committed to improving the livelihood of the citizens of our great country, Nigeria.
“NNPC will continue to consistently champion the implementation of Sustainable Community Development projects that will positively impact the lives of the citizens of this Country. We are very proud and elated to be commissioning yet another laudable and essential project. We know that this facility will help provide succor to the people for the purpose it is intended,” she said.
Speaking on behalf of the partners, Luc Vanson, General Manager, Prime 130, said the company was proud to be part of such a laudable initiative especially because clean water is an essential commodity.
“On behalf of the partners, we are proud to identify with the project as we want to make sure that Nigerians have access to quality education, clean water, and an international standard healthcare system,” he said.
The project is a purpose built solar powered borehole with treatment plant, comprising Grundfos submersible pumps, powered directly by solar panels via solar charge controllers as power source as well as containerised aeration tank which ensures the protection of both treatment plant and quality of water from the borehole. It has a capacity of 40,000 litres of treated water in four 10,000 liters GPee tanks with eight dispensing points.
The borehole also includes two functional dispensable units- the first unit is situated inside the school premises, while the second unit is situated outside to serve the surrounding communities.
The solar panel and batteries powered facility will ensure constant renewable energy, and help to improve the environment through reduction in emission of greenhouse gases.
The facility avails the communities the opportunity of 24 hours of World Health Organization standard drinkable water supply.
Receiving the project, the community leaders and government representatives thanked TotalEnergies and its partners for the laudable project, and promised to ensure adequate maintenance of the facility.
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