15 July 2002
There is a growing water crisis in Nigeria, and in many cases, this has begun to adopt bewildering and ridiculous proportions. Yakubu Ozohu-Suleiman has been investigating the growing water debacle.
With a population of well over 120 million people, less than 30 per cent of Nigerians have access to safe drinking water. By this fact, it means that over 80 million Nigerians are not drinking safe water.
Water is essential for life, with 60 per cent of the human body weight made up of water, and about 74 per cent of the earth surface covered by water, the message of nature is loud and clear!
Successive governments in Nigeria, including the present administration "have spent" several billions of Dollars in providing safe drinking water for a people who are yet sick and dying, for lack of same. The most recent was the $500 billion National Water Rehabilitation Project. This project was billed to provide water for the entire population.
Unfortunately however, without regard to the unending thirst to which the masses of Nigerians have been exposed for over forty years, the Federal Ministry of Water Resources indicated that the National Water Rehabilitation Project has failed. According to the minister, Alhaji Mukhtari Shagari, the World Bank was to blame for the failure because of "the cumbersome" nature of the project. The minister stated that Bretton woods International, the World Bank party in the project, has never made any meaningful contribution in the area of water provision in Nigeria.
Admitting the failure of the project, the World Bank Country Director, Dr. Mark D. Tomlinson however argued that the Federal Government of Nigeria, and not the World Bank, was to blame. The Federal Government, Dr. Tomlinson said, failed to meet its financial obligation. In a report, the World Bank had said that the National Water Rehabilitation Project was probably the most corrupt project it had ever engaged in, worldwide.
Another Important nationwide water project in Nigeria which failed was the Improved, National Access to Water Supply and Sanitation Programme (INAWSSP). The project which was initiated by the Federal Ministry of Water Resources in the year 2000, was planned to construct and rehabilitate boreholes in each and every local government area across the country. Although this project was able to go beyond ordinary paper work as contracts were awarded to that effect, Daily Trust however reliably gathered that as soon as the project was cleared for execution, a high network of vicious collusion was quickly organised between the contractors and some men of a major water establishment, and after disbursing the 25 per cent advance payment to all contractors, both the water establishment and the contractors abandoned the project. Up till today, that chapter appears to have remained closed.
Some observers who spoke to Daily Trust on this matter, are saying that it is possibly on some superficial record that the Improved National Access to Water Supply and Sanitation Project which gulped Billions of Dollars has been successfully implemented. A comprehensive financial account may also have been drawn and kept to that effect, whereas, boreholes are no where to be found as planned in the project. The remaining 75 per cent of the contract sum, observers says, may have been shared among the hidden accounts of the colluding elements.
It is a common knowledge that majority of the Nigerian Civil Servants are equally contractors. Most of the development projects were awarded to contractors who, in themselves are civil servants or public officers within the various ministries and parastatals, where such projects were initiated.
In 1989, the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) undertook to assist the government in her multi-billion naira water project.
The ADB-assisted water project which was an entirely different initiative, was designed to focus on the rural areas throughout the country. To re-echo an important fraud in this project as unveiled in a newspaper article, a company owned by wealthy businessman in the South-East won a part of this contract to provide water in seventy rural communities in the old Anambra State, now partly comprising Anambra, Enugu and Ebonyi States. Up till today it is difficult to find traces of this project in the 30 communities where the company claims to have completed work.
In Abuja, the water supply situation is only best described as embarrassing. The rainy season in which we are presently may have concealed the severity of water shortage in the city.
On Thursday the 4th, and Friday the 5th of July 2002, there was no water in the National Assembly Complex in Abuja. Daily Trust reliably gathered that such has happened several times in the National Assembly, where the revered law makers of this nation sit. Our source may not have accessed the underground (White House) of the assembly complex to see the situation. But it was certain, as an insider, that for the two days of the absence of water, the toilets of the administrative blocks of the National Assembly were filthier than those used by commoners in Idu-Karmo.
The population of Abuja has grown tremendously, and has continued along that line. The pressure on available infrastructures is overwhelming, and has been used as an excuse for the gross inadequacy of water in the city. Some observers blame the poor planning of the Federal Capital Territory, which they argue should have anticipated the rapid population growth currently experienced in the city. A large proportion of this population growth is taking place in the satellite towns like Gwagwa, Karmo, Idu, Lugbe, Nyanya, Garki village etc. Incidentally, these are the places worst-hit by water scarcity. In these towns, unlike their inner city counterparts, water is sold in jerrycans by vendors who are popularly known as "mai-ruwa". Apart from the fact that the inhabitants are mainly low-income earners, they spend an average of N150 each day, especially during the dry season to get drinkable water.
The entire federal capital depends on one dam - the Lower Usuma Dam for water supply. The rapid depletion of this dam has also been used as excuse for the scarcity of water in the federal capital. Definitely the bulk of raw water obtained from this source cannot be passed over to the consumers just like that. It has to be treated. Out of the four plants needed to treat the raw water, there is only one serving the entire federal capital at present.
At the FCT water board, Daily Trust gathered that the four treatment plants would only become necessary when all the phases of the Federal Capital Territory are fully developed. It may however interest us to know that there is none of the development phases of the proposed districts in Abuja presently, where people are not found in reasonable numbers.
The only functional treatment plant has a productive capacity of 5000 cubic metres of water per hour. This, according to the master plan was intended to handle only phase one of the FCT, comprising Maitama, Wuse, Asokoro, Garki and Central Area Districts. Unfortunately where the greater proportion of the population growth is taking place, are either in phase 3 or 2 of the master plan. It means therefore, that the present water treatment plant can hardly serve a quarter of the present Abuja population. The Director of FCT water board, Engineer Nosa Ukponmwan has already devised a formula for distributing water among FCT residents. In a media report, the director categorically stated that the formula for water distribution in Abuja is "the consumer, their need, and the water available." The question that follows there from is: who are the consumers in the satellite towns? Do they really need water, and is the available volume of water enough to be extended to them?
Presently, due to corrupt land deals in the FCT, houses have been built on lands where water pipelines are supposed to pass. This has added to the complications of matters of water supply, especially networking, in the FCT.
In 1998, during General Abdulsalami Abubakar's administration, an official amount of N3.2 billion was committed to constructing a second water treatment plant in the FCT. This project was commissioned incomplete on May 29, 2000. The treatment plant which also has a productive capacity of 5000 cubic metres of water per hour, has, up till today, remained non-functional. It was said that if the plant were functional, water supplying FCT would have been a bit regular and extended to some places outside phase one.
The delay in the activation of this plant, Daily Trust gathered, is due to the uncompleted laying of the bulk water conveyance trunk. While this problem remains, another contract was awarded for the damming of Gurara Falls in Niger State. The contract which was awarded to an Israeli company known as Messrs SCC is worth $30 billion. It would involve laying a 70 kilometre conveyance trunk from the source to the FCT. The Dam, according to plans, would be eight times the size of lower Usuma Dam, and would have a reservoir capacity of 100 million cubic metres of water.
It is important to know that this contract was awarded before the coming of the Obasanjo administration. As at the time it was awarded some 4 - 5 years ago, it was said that the completion was billed for 30 months (about 3-years).
All across the country, the mass of people have been left to continue drinking water containing iron sulphide and all sorts of bacteria, germs and suspended matter capable of causing diseases. In a study conducted by the World Health Organisation (WHO), it was discovered that 80 per cent of all sicknesses in the world is caused by lack of, or inadequate safe drinking water, and poor sanitation.
In the whole of Plateau State at present, a system of portable water is virtually non-existent. In Kogi State people trek incredible distances with buckets to get drinking water. The little they find in some places is often contaminated with bodies of dead animals. In Amanuke, Urum and some other communities in Anambra State, people rely mainly on streams to get drinking water. In the FCT, majority of the people rely on streams, wells, and vendors, to get drinkable water. The few people who are able to sink wells, tend to have developed a culture of miserliness over a natural endowment such as water. People are often engaged in fracas to get water to drink.
The above, being the case, most local and state governments whose primary responsibility is to provide water, are spending millions of naira in purchasing treatment chemicals for water that is not available. The highly corrosive ductile iron pipes and asbestos pipes, which have long been banned in all civilised countries, have remained the types used in networking water supply in Nigeria.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2002 Daily Trust. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
