‘Help! Govt agency is contaminating our water!’

Zhidu, with a population of over 1,400 is located within a distance of 23 kilometres away from Piwei Junction in the FCT. The major occupation of the people is farming but as nature would provide an alternative source for the people to supplement their livelihood, River Wupa stretching a long distance in opposite directions at […]

Zhidu, with a population of over 1,400 is located within a distance of 23 kilometres away from Piwei Junction in the FCT. The major occupation of the people is farming but as nature would provide an alternative source for the people to supplement their livelihood, River Wupa stretching a long distance in opposite directions at Zhidu served as a rich source of fish.
The natives last Monday told Weekly Trust that the only source of water sustaining them was polluted in 2004, adding that men and women in the area are farmers but some equally engage in fishing in River Wupa, which they say was polluted when the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) Waste Treatment Plant was established in the area in 1999.
Residents who misunderstood the purpose of the plant said it was a fertilizer industry. The factory empties all its waste into the river, thereby making it unfit for their use.
The residents said they could not use the water to wash their clothes because whenever they dip them in the river, the clothes become thicker and heavier and very difficult to squeeze and wash. “No one can bathe with the water, or fish in it. Nets equally become too heavy for fishermen to lift when they are thrown into the river to catch fish. Whenever there is heavy rain, it washes the waste away.”
Mr. Phillip Dabe, a resident, said when the problem started in 2004, their brothers working with the company negotiated that the management of the company should assist by providing the villagers with water for domestic use.
“The company allowed our mothers for only three months and later said the community should look for another alternative.” he said.
Afterwards, the community turned to the polluted water. Before they could use the water, Philip said irrespective of the quantity they boiled and filter it before using it, but if it is for drinking or cooking, they applied the required quantity of alum to it.
“Even for washing, we have to boil and filter the water because we do not know what substances were used in polluting the river,” he said.
Philip said boiling the water on such a large scale would surprise many people but it is a daily activity involving large quantities of firewood fetched and sold by residents of the community themselves.
Residents said the situation is more difficult during the dry season especially when the heat becomes intense. Instead of bathing with relatively cool water, residents of Zhidu Awogba have to boil water for the purpose.
Residents including school children wake up early in the morning to boil water and filter it for bathing. Those who cannot wait for it to cool use it like that. Those who are not in haste allow their water to cool very well before usage.
In spite of the measures, the community members still recorded cases of ill-health. Many children in the community urinated blood for years. Residents disclosed that teachers in the primary school at Zhidu 1 – a more developed settlement – have on many occasions treated cases of red urine persisting among the pupils.
According to Philip, “When the teachers see pupils urinating blood they take them to pharmacies and buy drugs for them. Some use the drugs and get treated, while others like Thank God – a seven year old pupil of LEA Zhidu 1, has never recovered till today.”
Speaking on their source of water during the dry season, Tani John, a mother in the community said they do not fetch directly from the river. She said they go to the bank and dig a hole about 30 centimetres deep.
“With our bowls, we fetch from there. Even that one is polluted and we boil it before use.” An elder of the community, David Malu said he was the first to contract the disease and urinated blood in 2005. “I felt it coming like hot water the first time. But the pain subsided within five seconds.  When the situation persisted, I went to a chemist and was administered some drugs which reduced the pain gradually and finally it left me.”        
Philip said when he reported the situation to a nurse, the health officer said the polluted water had caused some injuries in the bladder and was responsible for the red urine constantly passed.
Tani Male, mother of Thank God Male said her son has been on drugs for a long time, but the red urine did not stop even for a day. “There are others whose cases reappear after a month. But Thank God’s case is extraordinary.”
Elderly Dabe Kumfu, father of 15, said his children were 23 but he lost eight. He said his means of sustenance had been farming and fishing along River Wupa but his net has been hanging for years now. “After the river was polluted, residents directed their attention to farming,” he said.
A source at the AEPB Sewage Treatment Plant at Wupa said no productive activities were going on there. The source said the plant only treat liquid wastes arising from domestic activities within the FCT. 
“We do not deal with even chemical liquid wastes in the FCT. There is no single soak-away pit in the FCT. The purpose of this plant is to treat all liquid wastes from the FCT. Have you ever seen any construction site in the FCT where the owner is digging a soak-away? The first thing you do if you want to build a house, office or any structure where human activities will take place is to register at the board and get connected to this plant, therefore, it is wrong for anyone to think that we can pollute the environment,” said the source.