The Gombe Ministry for Rural, Community Development and Cooperatives says N600 million has been earmarked for water projects in the rural communities across the 11 Local Government Areas of the state.
Alhaji Usman Jahun Commissioner, Ministry for Rural and Community Development, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Gombe.
According to him, the fund will be spent on earth dams, boreholes, overhead tanks, among other facilities aimed at providing potable water for the rural populace.
Jahun said that the ministry had started to identify communities in the state that were not connected to the national grid, and as soon as the proposed project was completed, the communities would be connected.
The commissioner said that Gov. Inuwa Yahaya had passion for rural areas because 80 per cent of Gombe population were domiciled in the rural communities.
According to him, providing basic amenities in the rural communities will reduce the rate of migration from rural to urban centres.
The commissioner said that the state government had resolved to construct 100 km network of roads in each local government area of the state under an initiative tagged: ‘Network Eleven Hundred’.
He said the concept of the roads network was to open up rural communities, boost economic activities and facilitate easy access to locations across the state. (NAN)
