The people of Agoi Ibami Community, Yakurr Local Government, Cross River State, have constituted a committee of well-meaning citizens to safeguard the mini waterworks system donated to the community by Guinness Nigeria Plc, under its corporate social investment known as Water of Life.

HRH Charles Iku Ujong, Clan Head, Agoi Ibami Community, who disclosed this recently, said that his people “are looking forward to the coming rainy season with joy, confident that the health challenges and portable water crisis that have come to be associated with heavy rains in the area have now been consigned to history by Guinness Nigeria Plc.”

According to HRH Ujong, his people had suffered long during rainy seasons in time past from lack of clean water, because heavy rains give rise to excessive water which provokes an unhygienic environment and compound the health challenges confronting the people, giving rise to waterborne diseases.

Calling on the entire community to support the committee, he stated that the community under his leadership “would do everything within its power to preserve the legacy.”

The royal father expressed gratitude to Guinness Nigeria for the social investment the company made in his community – a mini waterworks system comprising a borehole, overhead storage tanks, water treatment plant, reticulation network and a standby power source which the company handed over to the community recently.

Commissioning the project recently, Corporate Relations Director, Guinness Nigeria, Mr. Sesan Sobowale, represented by Deputy Head of Public Policy, Diageo Africa, Miss Mojisola Akpata, had said that the provision of portable water to local communities in Nigeria is an integral part of Guinness Nigeria corporate citizenship agenda.

“The Water of Life project is part of the company’s contribution in addressing the global concern of accessibility to clean drinking water in line with the United Nations Millennium Development Goals to halve the number of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation by 2015,” he said.

Also, acknowledging the kind gesture, Governor Liyel Imoke, represented by his Special Adviser on Labour Matters, Hon. Sam Oju, highlighted that this social investment by Guinness Nigeria is a timely succor to the people of Agoi Ibami considering the hardship the citizenry faced in the bid to get portable water.

He added that the scarcity of water in the community has been a nagging issue which constituted health concerns expressing the belief that the donation by Guinness will put an end to such challenges. His words: “With this project in place, we believe the hardship experienced by our people here at Agoi Ibami will be over as we expect an improvement of the livelihood of the people in the community.”

•Photo: Cross River State Governor Liyel Imoke.