Rotary to spend N39m on water supply in Abuja slums

Rotary International and its affiliates in Abuja are to spend about  N39.8 million (about $200,000) to sink 79 boreholes in impoverished communities of Abuja. The club made the assertion after it commissioned the first water supply projects in Abuja, including two motorised boreholes at JSS Durumi and four hand- pumped boreholes at Kpaduma, a slum […]

Rotary International and its affiliates in Abuja are to spend about  N39.8 million (about $200,000) to sink 79 boreholes in impoverished communities of Abuja.
The club made the assertion after it commissioned the first water supply projects in Abuja, including two motorised boreholes at JSS Durumi and four hand- pumped boreholes at Kpaduma, a slum neighbourhood of Abuja’s Asokoro District on Tuesday.
Speaking at the opening, Mike Omotosho, governor of Rotary’s District 9125, spanning some 23 states, said, “Whatever we need to do,a whatever we have to sacrifice to make life better will have to be made to ensure we serve humanity.”
The projects are financed through a counterpart funding scheme between Rotary Club of Wuse Central and a grant from Rotary International.
Governor of Rotary’s Wuse Central Club, Theodore Maiyaki Bala, said the club chose JSS Durumi after a needs assessment indicated the school was in need of water supply to enable use of its toilets.
“There are little kids here, and they have latrines. In an assemblage of young people without provision for latrines, that’s a Pandora’s box in itself,” Bala said.
“Once one of them gets hit by a disease, it becomes an epidemic. We believe very strongly it will improve the wellbeing of our children,” Bala added.
Before now, students of JSS Durumi sourced water in buckets from neighbouring private residences, in the absence of their  own water supply, according to the head teacher, Aisha Ahmed.
Nor did they have a source of drinking water while at school.
“Most can’t afford water sachets. With this, there’s a change in their lives,” she said.