The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has commenced disconnection of all illegal connections to its water lines to save about N400 million it has lost.

The General Manager, FCT Water Board, Alhaji Tauheed Amusan, made the disclosure at a news conference on Thursday in Abuja.

Amusan lamented that while huge amount of money was being spent on maintaining all major sources of water supply, including the lower Usuma Dam and trunk lines, certain individuals and organisations had continued to break its pipes and engaging in illegal connections.

He noted that the Lower Usuma Dam, which was the major sources of water supply in Abuja, has the capacity to generate 20,000 cubic litre of water per hour, but only about 15,000 to 16,000 cubic litres are being pushed out.

“Regardless, the efforts that government make to subsidise water supply, there are individuals and organisations that do not want to pay.

“One of the challenges we have is a lot of illegal connections in our trunk loops.

“Abuja’s water system designed to deliver treated water through the tanks but we have a situation where some people are connected to the trunks before it gets to the tanks.

“And this compromises what we have in the tank. We are gradually disconnecting these illegal connections. When we do that, the tanks will be better and we will be able to deliver water to various destinations.

“There are also the challenges of leakages, vandalism and many more,” he added.