The Rivers State Government has assured residents of the state of its capacity to provide clean, safe drinking water, saying the aim is to ensure that citizens live a healthy life.
This assurance was given by the Managing Director, Port Harcourt Water Corporation, Chief Dr. Ibiba O. Walter, (DSSRS, JP), while declaring open the Rivers State WASH Media Master-Class and Roundtable Meeting, held on November 4, 2026, at the Conference Room of the Rivers State Water Corporation, Rumuola, Port-Harcourt.
Themed “Policy, Infrastructure, and Public Trust: Role of Media Leadership in Sustaining Urban Water and Sanitation Reform, Dr. Walter said the meeting was aimed at drawing the attention of the general public to the reformed Port Harcourt water project sponsored by the World Bank and African Development Bank (ADB), with counterpart funding from the Rivers State government.
Participants inspected facilities in the complex Dr. Walter said the Rivers State government, under the leadership of Governor Siminalayi Fubara, was committed to ensuring that residents of the state have “safe water to drink, safe toilets to use, and also form the habit of staying clean, so they don’t get sick.”
He explained that it was on that basis that Governor Fubara prioritized the people- oriented project of rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Water Corporation. Dr. Walter said the journalists were invited “to see, hear and get first-hand information to enable them to inform the general public adequately.”
He continued: “We invited you here to tell our story because the media can build a good story and can kill a good story. It can kill a good story and can build a bad story. Since ours is already a good story, we want you to blow us out. We want you to tell the people that Port Harcourt Water is the best pH water. As you know, water internationally is measured by PH.
“Port Harcourt water has the best water pH as we speak today. This is the message. We need the embellishment. Do not say lies about us; we want to hear the very best truth, not half truth. The quality of pHwater can be subjected to independent verification. If what our laboratory said is different from what other standard laboratories have said, I will stake my reputation on that”
Group photograph of participants
“I want to say that integrity without test is just noise, so we want our integrity to be tested, and that will be another bigger programme of itself; and perhaps you will be invited as media peoples to tell our stories in good light, to tell the government, to tell our intending customers, to tell the traditional rulers, to tell the politicians, to tell the market women, to tell the peasants, the high and the mighty in the society that the Phwater has come to stay, and it’s done by disciplined people. To tell the world that its not going to be business as usual”
Highlighting some of the incentives that ranks Phwater as one of the best portable water with global water standards, Dr. Walter said the Phwater project is part of Water Research Institute of Rivers State University (RSU) Port Harcourt.
He said “the project has the manpower enough to man the corporation we are about to start. Theoretically all that will help us achieve can be maned by the people here. We already had Water research institute at River State University” Going forward, the Port Harcourt Water Corporation producers of Phwater and operators of sanitary sewage in Port Harcourt, Dr. Walter narrated the reason why there are some areas the project was excluded from present projection of the project, and those areas were shifted for the second phase of the project.
“We are proposing the second phase of the project because World Bank has pulled out of the project for the reasons of not meeting up project development goals tenuously. So Woji, Elelenwo, Abuluma, and Trans Amadi areas are not in the African Development Bank components.
“The African Development Bank has offered the Rivers State Government its intention to offer some more assistance for us to cover those areas called Port Harcourt Water Supply and Sanitation Project phase. Port Harcourt will continually enjoy safe healthy portable water so that when we are no more we have to create this institution in such a way it will be difficult to have a moribund utility going forward,” he explained.
For optimal and maximal performance of the Port Harcourt Water Corporation, the welfare of the staff was not left out. The Managing Director said “We have to go into performance contract with our staff that they must deliver they have to get remunerated based on their performances”.
The infrastructure, the sustainability and the milage of the project were elucidated by the Assistant Purchase Coordinator, Production and Water Quality Manager, Engr. Charlotte Iwokiri. According to her, “the source of our water is ground water; we have 22 boreholes. Our end target is to cater for 1.5 million people in Obio/Akpor and Port Harcourt local government areas for phase phase one.
“This phase has not covered Woji, Elelenwo Trans Amadi, Choba and Ozoba in Obio/Akpor local government area axis and in Abuluma axis in Port Harcourt local government area.
Meeting in session
“We have three other stations in this project; Diobu, Moscow Road and Borokiri stations. When we fully come into operation we are proposing to serve customers 18 to 24 hours per day. With the good hygiene and sanitation Phwater provides, sickness in Port Harcourt will reduce. Naturally, our customers don’t pay for water; they pay for the facilities that are used to produce water because water is expensive”.
Peter Cookey, Professor of Regenerative Sanitation and Water Governance, Director CeWASS Rivers State University, Nkpolu, Port Harcourt, who was the keynote speaker at the event spoke on the role of the media leadership in driving utility reforms and public trust.
He said that successful utility reform requires more than infrastructure, explaining that it needs accountable institutions, informed citizens, and independent, technically capable media that keep asking the right questions; make reform understandable; test claims independently; and measure returns to assess results. He further urged the media leadership cycle to build trust, inform, investigate, follow up, engage, ask questions and make explanations to the public.
The question-and-answer session during the one-day event was moderated by both Christian Chibuzo Maduka, communication and social marketing consultant with the corporation, and George Will Glory Maudlyne, Lecturer, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt.
The Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Media Masterclass and Round Table meeting engaged the media practitioners present on a facility and equipment inspection tour around the complex at the corporation’s headquarters at Rumuola.
- Chief Dr. Ibiba Walter (DSSRS, JP), MD, Port Harcourt Water Corporation: “Our water is the best.
