Enugu’s tall ambition and the deadly water problem
Although presently, there is rainy season, but the extent the problem of drinkable water has affected residents of some areas in Abakpa Nike, Trans Ekulu, Obiagu in Ogui New Layout and Garki, Awkunanaw – all in the Enugu capital territory, has become quite worrisome. Our correspondent observed that the most eye-popping, incredible thing about the […]
Although presently, there is rainy season, but the extent the problem of drinkable water has affected residents of some areas in Abakpa Nike, Trans Ekulu, Obiagu in Ogui New Layout and Garki, Awkunanaw – all in the Enugu capital territory, has become quite worrisome.
Our correspondent observed that the most eye-popping, incredible thing about the “Jootu” stream is that some people who are in piggery business, for reasons best known to them, built their houses more than 15 shanty structures (pen) where they breed the pigs near the stream into which part of the waste from the pigs , find their way, thereby making the water not very, very good for human consumption. This has been going on since Adam without any one raising brows. But then people have been using the water from “Jootu”, and some residents even drink it not minding the stream’s nearness to the pigs! Besides, the village stream serves as ‘depot’ for human waste of all types such as human faces and waste from domestic use; almost all the residents of the area use the “Jootu” as their own refuse dump, Sunday Trust learnt.
“The ‘Jootu’ is our own pump. We don’t have pipe-born water here. We drink this water but there is a particular spot in front where the water is a bit clean; that is where we scoop the water we drink. It has been like this over the years,” a little girl living in the neighbourhood said as she points towards the direction of the “clean water spot”. She has gone to the stream to fetch water but refused to disclose her name to our reporter, who photographed her without her knowing it.
Moreover, the bursting or leaking of water pipes, which is more often than not, cause a lot of indiscriminate waste of drinking water in the city, is not helping matters in any way. The burst pipe at the junction where Rangers Avenue links Presidential Road in the Independence Layout, caused a huge leakage of water running from the junction to as far as over 400 meters Ilekwo Bus-Stop.
Similarly, at the place popularly called P&T area of Ogui New Layout, a burst water tap literally formed a “pillar of water” gushing endlessly. When our reporter approached the scene to take photograph of the “Pillar of water”, the children who had gone to fetch water from the burst pipe took a quick flight thinking that the reporter was an official of the Water Works. “O bukwa onye water works O!” (Meaning “he’s an official of Water Works”) they screamed as they all ran away. It was just after the reporter reassured them that he was not from Water Works, and that he intended no harm, that they started coming back to the spot with their water containers.
But commenting on the burst and leaking water pipes, State Commissioner for Water Resources, Engr. Charles Ajah explained, “Most of these burst pipes are caused by the construction companies. They are doing their jobs without due considerations, without getting our people to know; they go there and burst all these pipes. So that is what you see most of the times.”
Every two days, John Okeke, 22, who works as office assistant in one of the offices on Edinburgh Road in Ogui New Layout, hires a taxi that conveys him with his numerous plastic jerry cans to somewhere at Uwani, under Enugu South Local Government Area, where he struggles alongside others to fetch water from a burst water pipe that (as at the time of writing this report) serves as a means of drinkable water for the residents in the area. A burst pipe forcefully gushing out drinkable water is usually seen by residents as an easy means of portable water supply.
John, who would not want to be photographed, told our reporter that he spends quite a lot to get water for his domestic and official use. “Every resident of Enugu knows very well that transporters in the city are Shylocks who reap off the commuters with high fare. At times, when I sit down and calculate what I spend on water in a month, the amount baffles me. Somebody residing in Abuja where the tap possibly runs daily, might not understand the kind of stress, residents of the Coal City go through before getting water,” he said. “Most times, after calculating the total amount being spent on water only, our head office in Lagos would doubt that residents here experience such difficulties or spend that much before getting common, drinkable water; it’s amazing and unbelievable,” he said.
Mr Chibuike, who refused to give his full name, is a System/Network Engineer, who resides at number 22/24, Aguluumana Street, Ugwude Abakpa Nike, Enugu East Local Government Area of the state. On the average, Chibuike said he spends not less than N2,800 on water per month.
“I will appreciate if the government can make it possible for me to save that money and use it for another thing else. Personally, I buy sachets of water to drink in bags. And I spend about N2, 800 on water each month and this is because we are now in rainy season; if it is during dry season, the situation would be more painful because water would be costlier then. Nobody will be happy spending money like that on water every month,” said Chibuike.
Before Chibuike moved into the compound last two years, he recalled that the taps were flowing even till last year but recently, the taps suddenly stopped running regularly.
“The taps are unpredictable now. They no longer flow regularly,” he said. “We have not made any enquiry and no official from water works or ministry of water resources has come to tell us anything in respect of the irregular supply of water,” he added.
But Chibuike’s story is quite different from that of Miss Nkemjika Orji, who said she has been residing at the Onuasata area of Enugu metropolis and that ‘scarcity of water’ is not in the dictionary of residents of the area since the water taps there hardly stop running. “For many years now, the residents of Onuasata area don’t have water problem; the taps here run almost on daily basis. The problem we have is what to do with the water,” Nkemjika, a computer operator told Sunday Trust with a sense of pride.
“Here at Onuasata, our pumps don’t stop, but if they stop flowing; it won’t take, may be, three days before they will begin to flow again. It has been like this for a long, long time and we have taps installed at several strategic points. The water taps are enough for the population here. Onuasata residents have no water problem,” she emphasized.
What is the Enugu State Government doing about the water problem in the state?
The Enugu State Government had awarded a huge contract of over N11 billion for the provision of portable water; gave a recent approval of funds, after the usual state Executive Council meeting, for the purchase of 100,000 water metres to be installed for the use of water consummers, and has targeted the pumping of about 200, 25000 cubic water per day, according to State Commissioner for Water Resources, Engr. Charles Ajah, who spoke with our reporter during an exclusive interview inside his office in Enugu. The state project on water could best be described as quite ambitious.
Our reporter was told that the current Governor Sullivan Chime-led administration, in order to make water available to the Enugu people, decided to create the Ministry of Water Resources with full budgetary allocation. Hitherto, water was under the ministry of Public Utilities but since the inception of Ministry of water Resources, there are two parastatals also under it: one is Enugu State Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (ENRUWASA); this unit is in charge of water supply to the rural areas and also the sanitation aspect, while Enugu State Water Corporation is in charge of water supply to the urban areas of the state such as Enugu metropolis, Nsukka, some parts of 9th Mile and Orji River.
In between the two parastatals also exists what is known as Small Town Units which comprises those places that cannot be easily classified as purely urban or rural areas; such place could be regarded as semi-urban, said the Public Relations Officer, Ministry of Water Resources, Mr. Callistus Ebue. “We call such areas Small Town Areas where we also have an STU (Small Town Units), which is in charge of water supply to those semi-urban areas,” he told our reporter in an interview.
Ebue said before the Chime regime came into office, water supply to the semi-urban areas was done by the other donor agencies such as UNICEF, WATER AID, JIATA and the rest of them, explaining that since after the creation of the Water Ministry, the state government became the ‘driver of water’ to those semi-urban areas. He said the World Bank is sponsoring the water project in collaboration with the state government.
“I can tell you frankly that under the MDGCGS water programme, so many rural communities have benefited from water supply in the state,” he said. Adding, “Under 2008, we have about 145 rural communities. In 2009 MDGCGS, which is the current programme, we have about 165 rural communities. And some times, we take a lot of things into consideration while supplying water to rural areas. One, the geological survey of that area; there are certain areas we cannot sink the de-motorised borehole; some areas in Awgu, Aninri, and the rest of them that have swampy environment; it would be difficult to sink the de-motorised bore holes there. So the only alternative for now is the shallow bore hole. But shallow bore hole has a lot of disadvantages; sometimes, it doesn’t run throughout the year; during the dry season, the water can dry off. At the end of the day, when the people may need water most, those shallow boreholes don’t function.”
As a result, the government devised another means of solving the riddle of water problem: the spring impoundment or spring development; that is a situation in which water is drawn from the stream and then given the necessary treatment before being supplied to the people for consumption, according to Ebue.
“And we have one already developed at Nkelefi; that is the first one developed by the Enugu state government,” the PRO said, adding that “In other areas, like Nsukka area, where they have a lot of difficulties for water; the state government has sunk so many de-motorised boreholes, and the depth of the bore holes in Nsukka is always deeper than any other place like 9th Mile, Udi areas where they have clean water.”
Coming to the urban areas such as Enugu metropolis, Ebue said as far back as the colonial era, Enugu metropolis water supply was done through the asbestos pipes laid in the earth since 100 years the Coal City was established. He said that unlike in the past, the current population of the Coal Camp, Uwani, some parts of G.R.A. which was called European Quarters then, and other satellite areas like Abakpa Nike, Trans-Ekulu, Achara Layout, among others, were not taken into account in those days, hence the setting up of the Water Corporation was never meant for the current large population it now serves.
“Various governments that came – both military and civilian – never took the bull by the horn in trying to solve the water problem. It’s only this present Chime government that said this water problem has to be solved once and for all,” Ebue told Sunday Trust.
He said in some areas like Ogui, New Haven, Asata, Obiagu, Uwani, Trans-Ekulu, Coal Camp, Emene, Abakpa, Iva Valley covering 80 per cent of the city, have running taps at least once a week. “Once a week, the taps run for 24 hours,” Ebue said, adding that even areas such Obiagu, G.R.A. and Independence Layout, all have running water.
The Deputy Director, Public Relations of the Enugu State Water Corporation, Mr Matthias Nriji explained that three major water schemes exist in the state: the Greater Enugu Water Scheme, servicing the city; the Enugu Augmentation Water Scheme and the Iva Valley Water Scheme. Nriji said the Greater Enugu Water Scheme at Ajali River, pumps 77,000 cubic water per day; the Enugu Augmentation water scheme at Orji River supplies 50,000 while that of Iva Valley has 4,500 cubic water, per day. He said the three water schemes were grounded to ensure that the supervision of water resources is properly done.
Nriji said the very old asbesto water pipes are currently being totally replaced with the modern types that meet the International Standard. Channels Engineering Nigeria Limited is handling the rehabilitation of pipes in areas such as Trans-Ekulu/ Federal Housing Estate, Abakpa and Emene; Sanshek Nigeria Limited, another company is in charge of laying the pipes at GRA, Independence Layout while SNECOU Nigeria Limited is handling the Asata, Uwani, Achara Layout, Garki, Idaw River areas, according to Nriji, who added that before the end of December the projects would be completed. “By the end of this year, the story of water in Enugu State would have been different,” corroborated the commissioner, Ajah, who also acknowledged that power failure is the greatest challenge the state government’s ambitious water project might face. “The normal challenge to water supply here is power outages; because the water production line is powered in Ajali in Orji. So if you don’t have power supply, you won’t have water supply. That’s the major challenge,” Ajah told Sunday Trust.