By Hammed Shittu in Ilorin
The Kwara State Government said it had expended a total sum of over N6.5billion between 2009 and 2018 on water reticulation scheme for the residents of Ilorin metropolis and the other parts of  the state.
The government said the expenditure was made so as to resolve the perennial water shortage that always affected the residents of the state.
Speaking with journalists in Ilorin, the state capital, at the weekend in company of the Commissioner for Water Resources, Alhaji Abdulkadir Yusuf and some other aides of the governor, a consultant to the state government on the water rehabilitation project, Professor Sulaiman Adeyemi, said the sum of N1.9 billion was also captured in the 2018 budget to be spent on tertiary water reticulation in some parts of the state to ensure regular supply of potable water.
Adeyemi said the water challenge had lingered for so long in the metropolis because of the need to provide adequate water production, renewal of water distribution network, increase storage capacity, restoration of old pipes, and provision of adequate water treatment plant.
The water expert, who said the state government, since 2003, had been able to double water treatment capacity in the metropolis, added that the water supply projects in the communities, particularly in the Ilorin metropolis, would be inaugurated in September.
Also speaking, Yusuf  said the administration of Dr. Bukola Saraki expended about N3.7 billion on water scheme in the state, adding that the present government had spent over N2.4 billion on the scheme while about N858million was spent through infrastructural fund programme of the state government.
