Nasarawa Eggon Community’s Hunt For Water Continues

Universal Reporters reporter in Nasarawa State examines the long man-hour residents of Nasarawa Eggon spend waiting to access potable drinking water, especially during this dry season.

In spite of the huge sums allocated to the Nasarawa state ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources in the last three years of Engineer Abdullahi Sule’s administration to boost water supply, no frantic measure is in place to end the acute shortage of water faced by residents in Nasarawa Eggon community.

In the last three years, the state government earmarked a whooping N15.5bn to make water available and accessible to the citizenry. however, it appears the money is not yielding the desired results as residents continue to lament over water scarcity, which is more excruciating during the dry season.

Residents of Nasarawa Eggon rely on streams and other unclean sources of water while those tenanting the urban centres rely heavily on boreholes mostly sunk by private individuals. Even though the state has a water board, which is ideally supposed to serve as a public corporation supplying water to residents, especially those in the urban centres, the situation not only in Nasarawa Eggon but the state capital including Doma, the host community of Doma dam, most pipes by the water board had been perpetually dry for years and no end in sight to reticulate broken pipes.

Our correspondent reports that even though the state government recently declared a state of emergency on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) during the launch of “Clean Nigeria Use The Toilet Campaign”, it appears the declaration is a mere policy pronouncement not backed by plausible actions.

It would be recalled that the governor who spoke through his deputy, Emmanuel Akabe, said the emergency declaration was geared towards addressing the menace of open defecation as well as providing access to clean water in the state.

Akabe said that the Nasarawa State Rural Water Supply  and Sanitation Agency (NARUWASA) has been mandated to ensure that not less than five hundred communities across the thirteen Local Government Council have access to clean drinking water by the year 2023.

However, available statistics indicate that over sixty-five percent of the population of Nasarawa state do not have access to clean drinking water.

One of the most hit Local Governments in the state is Nassarawa Eggon, the headquarters of Nassarwa Eggon Local Government that is about 30 kilometres away from Lafia, the state capital. Our correspondent reports that residents of this boisterous community, especially women, trek for long kilometers in search of stream or pond water.

Nafisa, a mother of 4, is a resident of Nassarwa Eggon community. She lives along the popular Mada station road. She told our correspondent, that they have no choice but to take the stagnant water “because that is what is available ” adding that potable drinking water is a serious impediment to residents.

A cross-section of the residents corroborated what Nafisa said and appealed to both the council and State Government to find a lasting solution to the perennial water scarcity in the area.

Zulaihat Aminu Isa said they normally queue for no less than five hours or more to have access to the stagnant water along Lafia-Akwanga highway. When asked whether they use water guard or chlorine before drinking, she answered in the negative.

Also, Wasila Yakubu of the Broni area who lamented the persistent water scarcity urged women to vote out politicians that perform below expectations.

Yunusa Ali Mangai from Angwan Madami appealed to Governor Sule to bring succor to the people, describing the situation as a setback to Nasarawa Eggon community.

Good enough, it appears all hope is not lost as a resident Jamila Anzaku said David Emmanuel Ombugadu, a former member of the House of Representatives who represented Akwanga/Wamba/Nasarawa Eggon constituency and now the governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), has assisted greatly by providing boreholes to the populace during his reign as member House of Representatives, urging other politicians to emulate him.

Waya-waya , Broni, and Angwan Madami communities did not see any sign of open wells in the majority of the households visited, it was learned that almost all the hand pump boreholes provided by Ombugadu are dysfunctional due largely to lack of maintenance.

When contacted, the Council Chairman, Danlami Odasko declined to comment. For his part, the member representing Nassarawa Eggon at the State House of Assembly, Muhammed Aga Muluku could not be reached for comment.

Our correspondent reports that other areas hit by the water scarcity include Keffi Local Government, where students of Government College Keffi, trek far away from school in search of water.

In addition, Nasarawa Local Government is not spared from the water scarcity quagmire where residents of an overseas area, a settlement in Nasarawa town, are worse hit.

Similarly, in Doma Local Oovernment with it’s the popular Doma dam, arguably the biggest dam in the state,have no access to potable drinking water for the past nine months due to the breakdown of standby generator, residents of the Doma community also grapple with water scarcity even with the presence of the dam which supplies over 1 million cubicle of water on a daily basis, apart from fishing and irrigation farming.

Universal Reporters discovered that unidentified persons vandalized 75 electric poles that supply electricity from Lower River Basin Development Authority building to the main auxiliary transformer supply the dam with light, the District Manager of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company when contacted said they are not aware of the cut-off of power supply to Doma dam, he however said the dam is not in its service area.

The scenario is the same in Lafia, the state capital where households, ministries, departments and agencies are battling with acute water shortage. Also affected are residents of Awe ,Obi and Keana where the challenge of lack of potable drinking water dominates discussions.

The General Manager of the Nasarawa State Water Board, Haruna Shafa, in an interview said stringent measures has taken by the State Government to address the gap, he described some of the issues affecting water supply in the State to the absence of water law, the inability of consumers to pay water bill which is not up to N1000 monthly as a serious impediment.

“We don’t have the power to prosecute defaulters because of the absence of clear-cut laws on water supply”.

Speaking on the water situation in Nasarawa Eggon, he said a senator representing Nasarawa North, Godiya Akwashiki has brought succor to the people through the rehabilitation of Ekpa Water scheme popularly known as Tilley Gyado , he identified some itches to the delay in the handing over of the water project and commissioning to activities of vandals.

He said security personnel in the area has effected the arresting of security guarding the water house who connived to destroy some of the facilities replaced by the senator.

Shafa attributed the ongoing dualization of Akwanga-Nasarawa Eggon-Lafia highway whose contractor is in the habit of destroying pipelines but not making any steps to replace them.

Governor Abdullahi Sule on assumption of office on 29, 2019, inaugurated a 7-man committee to appraise the water situation and recommend ways to resolve it. Headed by the Attorney General, Abdulkarim Kana, the committee was to identify all government water schemes and their status and to determine the repair work required as well the financial implications.

Three years later, it cannot be said with certainty if the committee’s recommendations are being implemented as residents continue to lament over persistent water scarcity.