Kano residents have appealed to the State Government to restore public water supply, ahead of the Eid el-Kabir festival to end the current hardship and prevent outbreak of diseases.
A cross-section of residents interviewed by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in the metropolis on Sunday, said the government must end the current hardship by restoring the water supply.
Sheikh Sani Imran, a resident of Karkasara, said the absence of public water supply had resulted in enormous hardship on the people.
“The situation that we found ourselves today in Kano is pretty bad, especially the problem of water supply.
“For the first time in over 40 years, public water supply has been shut down, public taps have dried up and people have to travel hundreds of kilometres in search of water.
“Sometimes women and children have to wake up as early as 2 a.m. in search of water.
“Most people rely on public water supply, while others rely on local well for their water supply, ” he said.
Imran said that lack of public water supply had resulted in indiscriminate drilling of boreholes by individuals who could afford them.
“All our wells have dried up due to uncontrolled drilling of boreholes, individuals are now drilling boreholes in their residence to escape from the problem.
“But the indiscriminate drilling of boreholes has dried up all the local wells in the area.
“People now have to rely on some boreholes donated by charity organisations for water, but the problem of epileptic electricity supply has also prevented the boreholes from operating.
“Sometimes, people have to travel as far as Yen Lemo to fetch water in boreholes owned by wealthy individuals, it is really a pathetic situation,” he said.
Malam Haruna Ahmad, a resident of Darmanawa Quartres, corroborated the claim saying his neighbour’s 15 year-old daughter was raped while trying to fetch water from a borehole in the night.
“Two weeks ago the girl was raped while trying to fetch water from a borehole donated by charity organisation.
“What happened was that there were no electricity throughout the day and when it came in the night, she went with her sister to fetch the water and unfortunately, she fell into the wrong hands.
“We have reported the case at the police station and some arrests have been made.
“It’s really a sad situation, the government must live up to its responsibility by restoring the water supply, ” Ahmad said.
Alhaji Ibrahim Bagobiri, a resident of Sharifai Zauren Tudu, said the problem of water supply was not new to the area.
“The problem didn’t start today and we are used to it, because we buy water daily from hawkers who supply water from boreholes around.
“But sometimes you wake up without anything in your pocket, that’s where the problem comes in because the hawkers won’t give you water free,” he said.
But Malam Hamza Ibrahim, a resident of Kurna Asabe, offered a different dimension.
“This place has never enjoyed public water supply, so we don’t even know what is called public water supply.
“Everybody relies on ‘Maigaruwa'( water hawkers) for his daily supplies, we buy a gallon of water for between N80 and N100 depending on the location and the whole truck goes for about N1,500.
“This is the way we have been living for years, we don’t care about public water supply, if they like they should restore it and if they like they can leave it, ” he said.
Gov. Abba Yusuf had on assumption of office declared State of Emergency on supply, directing the state water board to submit its demands for the restoration of water supply for immediate action.
But many days after the declaration, the government had yet to take concrete steps on restoring the supply.
(NAN)
