Cholera Outbreak, Small Pox And Scabies And Water Shortage Hits Gwaram Communities In Jigawa By Umar Faruq Usman,Dutse
The People of Maruta Basirka Community in Gwaram Local Government Area Of Jigawa state are said to be facing serious health conditions owing to the poor hygienic situation in which they found themselves, this was disclosed to newsmen by a youth leader in the area Malam Kabiru Muhammed Ibrahim.
According to the Youth leader, he said that the council chairman is busy renovating Local government secretariat with millions of Naira while people are living in an unhygienic environment as women and children are being infected with various diseases such as Cholera, Small Pox and scabies as the hospital in the area are short of medical equipments.
According to Kabiru he said there no good portable water for people to use, as the old Gwaram community people are drinking from contaminated water which is the major problem that lead has led to the of spread of infectious disease.
According the youth leader, Maruta health centre is in a dilapidated state as the doctors and nurses now attend to patients under trees as there are no offices and bed to receive patients, universalreporters gathered that diseases such as Malaria, scabies, Chicken Pox, are major diseases ravaging the community, as they community have accused the Local Government authorities of not coming to their aid.
As gathered many families have been forced to travel out from Gwaram to Birnin Kudu Federal Medical Centre in search of medical attention even as majority of the people living around the area could not afford the medical bills, not to talk of transporting themselves from Gwaram to Federal Medical Centre.
However, in his response when contacted, the chairman of the council Hon Hannafi Yakubu Fagam confirmed the situation, as he hinted that the local government is facing serious challenge because they are not receiving enough fund from the Federal Government allocation, as the little they receive from the allocation, goes into the payment of staff salary.
The council boss said that the council has manage to purchased water facilities worth over N5m in which about eleven communities has benefited from water supply and over 70 boreholes were constructed in the rural areas with a view to assist Fulani who rear animals.
He also confirmed that there is there is cholera outbreak presently in the area with the existence of smallpox and scabies disease in the area, a situation which has made the council to spend over N4.7million for the purchase of vaccines and drugs to eradicate these diseases in the area, while over 500 people were employed to work for the council as water sanitation officers in the area.
He also said that in its effort to enlighten the people of the area the council has also established community Radio Station which they usually provide local programme to educate and entertain the people living around the area which the council he said the council spent over N1.8million in establishing the station.
Explaining further he said that the council has also awarded over ten million Naira contract for the purchase of furniture for the newly constructed chairman’s house which was recently constructed, he said the chairman’s house construction gulped over 100 million as directed by the Jigawa State Government, he also said that the council is spending over 113 million Naira on the payment of monthly salary of its 564 local government staff because the council is one of the council in the State with the highest number of staff.
