Water scarcity: Zaria heaves sigh of relief

Perennial water scarcity has been shrouding the ancient city of Zaria for decades. However, two recent happenings have made the residents to heave a sigh of relief, Kano Chronicle reports. Malam Ibrahim Dankano (not real name) has been on the queue to fetch water for nine hours. He was waiting for his turn at the […]

Perennial water scarcity has been shrouding the ancient city of Zaria for decades. However, two recent happenings have made the residents to heave a sigh of relief, Kano Chronicle reports.
Malam Ibrahim Dankano (not real name) has been on the queue to fetch water for nine hours. He was waiting for his turn at the motorised solar borehole in Unguwan Juma inside the ancient city of Zaria only to learn that he could not fetch the water because he was not a resident of the area. The residents of Unguwan Rubu in Unguwan Juma have a policy.
Those residing close to the motorised solar borehole are given opportunity to fetch first before residents of other areas. Being a resident of Kofar Kibo, Zaria, Malam Dankano had to wait for “neighbours of the borehole” to fetch first despite been there before them. The visibly angry Dankano resorted to prayers.
“We ask Allah to bring an end to this water scarcity problem. We have been in this problem for decades and all the previous administrations promised to bring the problem to an end in Zaria. All those promises ended in political dustbin. I don’t blame the residents here because it is the scarcity that made them to come up with this policy of ‘borehole neighbours first,” Dankano said.
Water scarcity in Zaria, particularly in areas like Unguwan Juma, Kwarbai, Kaura, Babban Dodo, Unguwan Alkali, Tudun Jukun, among others, has been like a tumour, which has now developed into a full-blown cancer. Residents of the areas said the scarcity had defied all remedies.
President Olusegun Obasanjo’s civilian administration was the first to take a vow of ending the water problem when contract worth billions of naira of rehabilitation and construction of the Zaria water plant was awarded.
Despite the obvious commitment of Obasanjo to end the scarcity, he failed as he left office in 2007 without completing the project President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua administration continued to make efforts to complete the project where expatriates were brought from abroad. Some hoodlums abducted one of the expatriates and that brought the work to a standstill again.
At the state level, successive administrations took temporary measures of providing succour to residents. The state government has constructed many motorised solar boreholes at different areas of the city. However, some of the boreholes are either not functioning or not meeting the water requirements of some of the areas.
The situation at Unguwan Rubu in Unguwan Juma borehole revealed a chaotic struggle by residents in an attempt to fetch water. The high demand of the little water available necessitated the implementation of the “neighbours first” policy in the area.
Also, the motorised solar borehole located in the Tudun Jukun Juma’at mosque has dried-up. Residents of the area told our correspondent that the borehole was not functioning because at the peak of dry season it used to dry-off.
Malam Sale Munir, a resident of Kwarbai, said most residents of the city heavily relied on wells and water vendors to get water for their daily activities.
“In a dry season like this, the wells usually dry off. Therefore, the only source of water for us is the vendors. The vendors also are often not available. Even when available, most residents cannot afford the cost. An average family would require about N300 worth of water daily.
How many people can afford that? This is why some residents spend the whole day queuing for water if available at the motorised solar boreholes.
“Some of us have to travel all the way to Tudun Wada (a journey of about 20 kilometres from inside the ancient walls of Zaria) in search of water. It is high time that our government come to our aid by finding a lasting solution to this water scarcity,” Malam Munir said.
As the struggle to get portable water continued, the ancient city of Zaria had its first rainfall on Saturday, March 12, 2016. Though the rain was light, but at least many residents said it was a sign that an end to the hardship was in sight.
Residents of Zaria were always happy during rainy season not only because of their farming activities, but the season provides an end to water scarcity, which many of them see as a monster, a resident of the city Mukhtar Aliyu said.
A day before the first rainfall in city, Kaduna state Commissioner for Water Resources, Alhaji Suleiman Aliyu Lere, was in the city. The commissioner promised residents that the rehabilitation of Zaria’s water plant would be completed in December this year.
Lere explained that the rehabilitation of the water treatment plant of the city and laying of transmission lines would be the priority of his ministry, and this, he said, would cost the state government the sum of N60 billion. He urged residents to cooperate with his ministry for the successful completion of the project.
The hope of many residents interviewed by ­Kano Chronicle was the success of the project, as that would translate to the end of the Zaria’s monster.