Kwali communities groan under lack of pipe-borne water

Under the bare roots of a large mango tree, some water collects and people from Riwaza and Takuro villages perch on the protrusion with basins on their heads to scoop from the puddle with bowls to fill their basins or other containers. This is a routine for women of the villages once the dry season […]

Under the bare roots of a large mango tree, some water collects and people from Riwaza and Takuro villages perch on the protrusion with basins on their heads to scoop from the puddle with bowls to fill their basins or other containers.

This is a routine for women of the villages once the dry season sets in. But this is just one challenge among several others, our reporter learnt.

Two communities, Riwaza and Takuro in Ashara ward of Kwali Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), have been groaning over lack of pipe-borne water for long. 

They said lack of access to potable water at the peak of the dry season is a big challenge as some of the streams they fetch water from were drying up.

Aso Chronicle gathered that communities of the two neighbouring villages, who are of Bassa ethnic group, are predominantly peasant farmers.

The chief of Riwaza, Bako Bature, who spoke with our reporter, lamented over the problem of water which, he said, has been the main challenge of his people over the years.

He said the community had no functional borehole, explaining that the only borehole that was sank at the village primary school years back had broken down and that residents now drank water from a pond.

He said, though there was River Gurara nearby, its water was not hygienic for drinking.

He said the villagers mostly go to the river for fishing, while women trekked to a pond to fetch water from under the roots of a mango tree.

“The most disturbing part of the whole thing is that every dry season, I organise some elders and youths who would go and clear the pond and create a way where water should flow but some herdsmen will bring their cows to the place to drink the water,” he said.

The chief said several complaints were made to the authorities of the council to sink a borehole at the community but which he lamented, have not yielded any positive result.

Bature further complained over lack of access to health care delivery services for his people in the community.

He said when residents fall sick they travel out of the village to Kwali and Gwagwalada for medical treatment, adding that there was an uncompleted health centre which does not render any service to the residents at the moment.

“I believe if the health centre  is completed, it will ease the challenge my people face here in terms of seeking for medical attention, and they will not have to  travel to Kwali or Gwagwalada to be treated of illnesses,” he said.

He, therefore, appealed to the authorities of the council under the leadership of Mr. Joseph K. Shazin to, as a matter of urgency, come to their aid by sinking a borehole in the village to ease the problem of potable water at the community.

He also called on the council chairman to intensify effort to complete the health centre, which he said was at about 70 percent completion stage.

The spokesman of Takuro village, Mr. Ayuba Bazama, said the community has had to depend on water from streams, even as he said some of them have already dried up.

He said since Gurara river was far from the community, women had to leave home early to go to the Fadama areas to dig out sand and wait for several hours before they could get water. 

Bazama said there was a borehole with an overhead tank which was built in 2004 by the MDGs, but that it has since broken down.

“And since the borehole broken down almost nine years now, we don’t get clean water any more,” he said.

He appealed to the council authorities to come to the aid of the community by repairing  the borehole or sinking another to ease water problem in the community.

When contacted, the Chairman of Kwali Area Council, Joseph K. Shazin, said the council has already captured the sinking of a borehole each in the two communities from this year’s budget.  

“In fact, just last week I received a delegation from the two communities who complained about not only water but their road and I assured them that it has already been captured in this year’s budget,” he said.

Shazin said the council had also captured the completion of the Riwaza clinic and others in its budget.