We’ve been drinking from pond for 3 years, FCT villagers lament

Residents of Sumpe community in Shere Ward of Bwari Area Council of the FCT have lamented over lack of potable water in the community, saying they have been drinking from a dirty pond for about three years since the only borehole that serves them broke down. A resident, Isaac Musa, said the villagers woke up […]

Residents of Sumpe community in Shere Ward of Bwari Area Council of the FCT have lamented over lack of potable water in the community, saying they have been drinking from a dirty pond for about three years since the only borehole that serves them broke down.

A resident, Isaac Musa, said the villagers woke up early in the morning to trek to the pond and used calabashes to scoop water for drinking and other domestic use.

He said the major problem “our people are facing here in Sumpe is lack of potable water, as the only borehole that supplies water broke down over three years ago. Our women always trek to source water from a pond.”

Another resident, Mrs Asibi Ayuba, said the pond was the only source of water in the community, hence that women queued for hours to get water.

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She lamented that herders sometimes led their cows to the pond to drink, even as she expressed fear of a possible outbreak of water-borne diseases.

Another resident, Gimbal Danjuma, said several complaints had been forwarded to the authorities of the council, but that there was no response.

Reacting, an aide to the council’s chairman, who preferred anonymity, blamed the villagers for failing to fix the borehole.

He said, “As far as the council is concerned, there is no formal complaint from the community that their borehole has broken for almost three years.”

He, however, assured that the works department of the council would be informed in order to visit the community and access the broken down borehole so that it could be fixed.

Editor’s note: This picture was used for illustration