West African bank funds water scheme

The West African Development Bank has granted Niger two billion CFA (about US $2.9 million) to partially finance a water supply scheme, PANA reported on Tuesday. The project aims to supply 2,432 cubic metres of potable water a day to the city of Tillaberi, about 120 km west of Niamey. The city needs an estimated 3,500 cubic metres per day. The bank has also decided to open an office in Niamey, PANA said. NIGERIA: Overseas-based doctors plan boreholes in rural communities Nigerian doctors in the Americas say they will start a programme next year to drill boreholes in some local communities and to provide a steady supply of water to residents, ‘The Guardian’ of Lagos reported. “I know that it has been agreed that a borehole will be sunk in any community where an ANPA (Association of Nigerian Physicians in the Americas) medical mission visits,” Julius Kpaduwa, one of the doctors, said. The project is being undertaken by ANPA, founded in 1995, Kpaduwa said at the weekend. He is a Nigerian gynaecologist working in the US city of Los Angeles, and led a group of doctors providing free medical service to Isiala Mbano in Imo State. He said ANPA’s planning had reached an advanced stage to provide better health care to the communities served by the association. ANPA missions, he added, usually donated the equipment and remaining medicines to the health institution in which they provided free treatment. Nine ANPA missions work in different Nigerian rural communities each year. The association supports each mission with US $10,000 and receives donations in cash and medical supplies from pharmaceutical industries in the United States and individuals. The association has also installed e-mail facilities in some universities, teaching hospitals, and research institutes, including the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research in Yaba, Lagos.