Kubwa residents seek intervention over burst pipeline

Residents of Pipeline area in Kubwa, Bwari Area Council of the FCT, have appealed to the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, to intervene over a burst trunk pipeline that passes through their community. The residents, who spoke with Abuja Metro yesterday, said the pipeline has been damaged for about four years, leaking a substantial volume of […]

Residents of Pipeline area in Kubwa, Bwari Area Council of the FCT, have appealed to the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, to intervene over a burst trunk pipeline that passes through their community.

The residents, who spoke with Abuja Metro yesterday, said the pipeline has been damaged for about four years, leaking a substantial volume of water and causing severe gully erosion in the area.

It was learnt that the affected trunk line is connected to the FCT water treatment plant at Usuma Dam through a storage tank facility in Kubwa and supplies water to Gwagwalada, Jiwa and Gwagwa communities, as well as the Abuja airport.

A resident, Ibrahim Mustafa, said the damaged pipeline has continued to deteriorate over the years. According to him, the leaking water initially flooded nearby houses before a drainage channel behind the area was tampered with to divert the water flow.

He said buildings around the affected pipeline vibrate whenever water is being supplied and that the ground also shakes.

Another resident, Faruk Momoh, said a soakaway pit within his compound had been damaged as a result of the vibration, forcing many of his co-tenants to move out.

He added that several officials of the FCT Water Board had visited the site to assess the situation, but no action had been taken.

Also speaking, a community leader, Pastor Kayode Ogundeji, expressed concern over how children often use the site for swimming whenever water gushes from the broken pipeline, while commercial motorcyclists wash their motorcycles there.

He said the matter had been reported to the FCT Water Board on several occasions, but the agency claimed that the repairs were beyond its capacity.

Ogundeji therefore appealed to the FCT minister to intervene urgently.

He lamented the huge volume of water being wasted daily despite the fact that many residents in the area often go for days without water supply in their homes.

Efforts to speak with the General Manager of the FCT Water Board, Naye Istifanus, were unsuccessful as she did not respond to calls placed to her phone.

However, a senior official of the agency told our reporter that repairs on a pipeline of such magnitude must be handled by the Engineering Department of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), which possesses the required heavy-duty equipment.

“We have written to them and are following up. But as you know in the civil service, a file must move from one office to another before final approval is granted,” the source said.