Dapa: Kwali community where water is ‘gold’

For the people of Dapa community in Kwali Area Council, getting potable water is a major challenge. Locals go through much pain to get water from under a rock crevice. Dapa community lies at the foot of  a rocky hill, beneath which the water gushes out which the residents use. Inhabitants of the Yerene village […]

For the people of Dapa community in Kwali Area Council, getting potable water is a major challenge. Locals go through much pain to get water from under a rock crevice.
Dapa community lies at the foot of  a rocky hill, beneath which the water gushes out which the residents use. Inhabitants of the Yerene village are predominantly of the Bassa ethnic group, with a population of over 1000 and are peasant farmers.
When Aso Chronicle visited the community on Saturday, there was no doubt that lack of access to potable water has become a nightmare to residents of the community.
There were visible  signs of pain and anguish on the faces of three elderly women seen returning from the stream.
The only source of water is down a valley. Water trickles down from a rock crevice while dozens of women wait to fetch in turns.
The village head of the community, Alhaji Shuaibu S. Aguma, said water was like “gold” in the community.
He said the perennial water scarcity had been a major challenge for the village for ages.
He said even the present place where residents go to fetch water under a big rock was discovered by a hunter some years ago, saying the perennial water scarcity, especially at the peak of every dry season, had become a nightmare to people of the community.
According to him, residents of the community especially women, are compelled to trek down the rocky valley at night to get water, saying water only drips out from under the rock slowly, and the women  go at night with lantern or torchlight to fetch water.
“Mostly, when  women go to fetch water in the day time, some of them don’t get, that is why most of them prefer going at night with torch light because at that time, the water must have gathered and the population reduced,” he said.
He stated that despite the challenges posed by lack of access to potable water in the community, it will be difficult for his people to relocate since the problem of water has always been part of their lives.
“Despite the challenges of potable water in this community over the decades, we cannot relocate because we came and met our forefathers facing the challenge. We however derive lots of benefits here from farming, which is our only occupation,” he said.
He recalled how successive administrations of the council had been promising to tackle water problem in the community, but said nothing had been done. He, however, acknowledged that the former administration of Joseph Shazhin, had in 2010, mobilized engineers to the community to dig a borehole, which he said did not yield water. He said the engineers later left because they complained that the village was located on the hill and their water table was too far.
The chief also lamented over the dilapidated nature of the community’s local education primary school, which he said posed danger to the lives of the pupils, saying the only one block of three classrooms with head master’s office was in a state of disrepair.
He said most of the ceilings in all the classrooms had already been pulled down, while some windows were removed by heavy winds, adding that lack of teachers was also a challenge facing the school at the community.
 “And apart from the lack of teachers, pupils, especially those in Primary 1 and II, sit on the bare floor as virtually all the desks and chairs in the school are broken. I would want the council, especially the incoming administration, to liaise with the FCT Primary Education Board to provide desks and chairs for the school,” he said.
He also complained about the dilapidated state of the clinic in the community, saying the roof of the clinic always leaks anytime it rains. He added that the clinic also lacks drugs.
He said a nurse attached to the community clinic only prescribes drugs to patients who have to travel to Kwali or Abaji to buy them.
The village chief, therefore, appealed to the incoming administration to come to the aid of his people by providing them with necessary amenities, especially solving the perennial water problem facing the community.
Also, residents of Fogbe community in Ashara ward of Kwali Area Council of the FCT have complained over the dilapidated nature of the community healthcare  centre.
Spokesman of the community, Dangana Yahaya, who spoke with Aso Chronicle, said the clinic which was constructed since the administration of the late Mohammed Gimba, over 20 years ago, is now in a state of disrepair.
He said the clinic, which also serves the people of some neighbouring communities such as, Kpesele, Takuro, Kuka and Riwaza, as well as Fulani people that reside in the community, has been neglected by successive administrations.
The spokesman further complained over lack of bridge across the stream at the community, saying residents especially motorcycle owners, always wade through the stream before reaching other neighbouring villages.
“Past council chairmen promised to construct the bridge but nothing has been done about it and whenever it rains heavily, vehicles hardly cross the stream. In situations like that, villagers carry goods on their heads and cross to the other side,” he said.
He therefore appealed to the council authorities to grade the road from Fogbe to Kamadi village in order to facilitate transportation of farm produce to the market. 
Reacting, the outgoing chairman of the council, Ibrahim Daniel, said his administration had done its best in providing water and other social amenities to villages across the council despite the challenge of  lack of funds.
He said immediately he assumed office in 2013, he made the provision of boreholes for  rural communities his priority, even as he said the problem at Dapa was a peculiar one.
 “The problem of water at Dapa village is a peculiar case, as every successive administration had tried to sink a borehole, including my administration. Immediately I came on board, engineers were mobilized to the village, yet they could not get a suitable place to sink a borehole,” he said.
He also said his administration provided drugs in rural clinics.