Residents of the Nuku community in Nuku-Sabon Gari ward of Abaji Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are worried that they have to spend the night at a stream in the area to collect water which drips from under a rock.
Some of the residents, mostly women, who spoke when Abuja Metro visited the area on Tuesday morning, said the lack of potable water is a major challenge facing the community.
Mrs Laraba Dangana told our reporter that women usually leave their homes around 7 pm to 8 pm after preparing the day’s dinner for the stream which is already dried up.
‘’We often come here with our basins around that time; and sleep here on till the following morning just to get water from under the rock,’’ she said.
She said women waited throughout the night at the stream to allow water that usually drips slowly from under the rock to gather before fetching it one after the other.
According to her, residents of the community have been facing water scarcity, especially during the dry season every year, adding that the struggle to get water in the community has continued to pose serious health and environmental risks to residents of the village.
“Now, just look at the garbage that the rains pushed from the top of the hill down to the rocky gully, where we get this water. And despite the health risks, we still don’t have an option but to drink the water like that, without treating it.
“So, it is God that is saving us here in Nuku community,” she added.
Another housewife, Mrs Mairo Gwatana, bemoaned the water problem facing the community, saying residents mostly depend on water from the pond to survive in the area.
She said there were two boreholes provided by the area council in the community but water has not been flowing as expected from them.
She explained that one of the boreholes sank by the former chairman of the council, Alhaji Hassan Usman Sokodabo over 25 years ago, has not been functioning well because there is no generator to pump the water.
“The major problem is that there is no big generator that can pump water from the borehole. And you know Nuku community is located on top of the hill, which has also contributed to the water problem,” she said.
She said apart from buying water from water tankers, which always come from Abaji town, the stream had been the only source of water for people of the community.
She appealed to the council authorities to come to the aid of the residents by providing the community with a high-capacity generating set that will power the borehole.
She lamented the problems the women face while waiting at the stream to scoop water, saying, ‘’Sometimes snakes crawl over our legs while sleeping. But we thank God no one has been bitten.”
Our reporter observed as some of the women waited with their basins to scoop water from under the rock one after the other.
Some women were seen lying down as they waited for their turn to fetch water.
The village head of Nuku community, Alhaji Isah Zozo Kure, who spoke with our reporter at his palace, noted that lack of drinking water had been the major problem facing his people over the years.
He confirmed that women always left their homes late in the evening in search of water and returned in the morning, a situation which has been a source of concern to their husbands.
“I am sure you met some of our women at the stream, who I believe told you how they have been sleeping at the stream just to get water for domestic use,’’ he noted.
Kure said though the council authorities under the present administration of Alhaji Abubakar Umar Abdullahi sank a solar borehole with an overhead tank two years ago in the community, it has not been supplying water regularly.
“The solar borehole that was sunk by the present chairman of Abaji Area Council has not been working well. I later discovered that the contractor who carried out the project used a small submersible pump which has made it difficult to pump out water,” he said.
He added, “There is another borehole which was the first that was sunk by the former chairman, Alhaji Hassan Sokodabo, over 25 years ago, but it requires a big Lister generator to function, which we don’t have.’’
The village chief, while commending the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, for providing infrastructure across the FCT, appealed to him to come to the aid of his people in tackling the perennial water scarcity facing the community over the years.
An official from the works department of the area council, who preferred anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the press, confided in our reporter that the department had received a report on the solar borehole in the community and would soon invite the contractor to explain why he provided a small submersible pump for the borehole.
Credit: Daily Trust
