In Plateau outbreak of diseases looms as water becomes scarce commodity

Water, they say, is life. But what happens when the water is unavailable, and people have to scrounge it from unhygienic sources to survive. Joseph Olaoluwa takes a look at the drying sources of water in Jos, the Plateau State capital, and government’s seeming inability to provide quick suitable alternatives to remedy the situation, with the risk of outbreak of diseases looming large.

For Corp members, Prosper Arhawho and Ibukunoluwa Lana, it began as a playful banter by the 2017 Batch A Corps members that water would soon dry up in the wells after a long cold season stretching November till early February, as is the usual tradition in Jos, Plateau State.

For Kayode, it was a stunner during his short stay in Plateau State that the reality of living weeks without water dawned on him. He was forced to live three weeks without water in Jenta and once had to appear at work late in the organization he was accepted to undergo his Industrial attachment (IT) all because he couldn’t find water to bath. For him, no words could perfectly surmise his suffering and that of his colleagues who have suffered the same fate as well. They were not as courageous to show up to work like he did when RIPPLES NIGERIA caught up with him on Standard Road that particular day.

Water has become a scarce commodity nowadays. Nobody plays with it in the Redeemed Family House situated in Abattoir, Jos South area of Plateau State. A visit to the house will confirm this. You will see tons of yellow jerry cans displayed at every turn. Don’t be quick to check the jerry cans for little droplets of water because prying eyes may be watching to cast the first stone at the “water thief” stealing their “hard earned, hard fought and hard gotten water.”

The Back story to the Water Drought

“Water don dry up from well in family house o,” was the outcry Arhawho chose to begin with in the middle of a conversation about the water situation while speaking to Ripples Nigeria. For him, the situation at hand was quite dire. Initially, the drought period began with water slowly drying up in the well that is about five minutes from their abode which served as their source of portable water. From time immemorial, the well served as a source of water until it dried up.

According to Arhawho, the Landlord chose to seal his well to save whatever water was left as the other corps members moved to an uncompleted building housing a well that served them for quite some time. The well in the uncompleted building had dried up leaving them no choice than to trek an extra fifteen minutes to Abattoir Complex in the struggle for water to survive the harmattan.

Water as a valuable “asset”

When asked about the well in the uncompleted building, a pensive Arhawho responded in Pidgin English: “That water don go down well, well and the water dey dirty. In fact, at the Family House, nobody can just use anybody’s water anyhow. “Nobody fit take anybody water for family house; you don die. Nobody dey carry use water now. Water now na valuable asset.” He stressed.

Arhawho’s fears are further heightened by the fact that all the wells around them would soon dry up in few weeks to come and he told Ripples Nigeria that he might have no other choice than to run away since there is currently no alternative to solving this unbearable situation.

“They talk say e never dry o. They talk say e go reach time when this one go dry,” Arhawho reiterated his stance in vernacular while pointing to Abattoir complex; the newest safe haven for them as corps members serving in Plateau State; the only well fifteen minutes away from them that is serving them for the time-being.

Arhawho also told Ripples Nigeria that he was prepared to run away since he knows not what he would do by then. As he predicted, by that time, they would have no choice than to leave their own vicinity and cross into other neighbourhoods in search of water. For someone who was made to journey up North for his mandatory service year upon college graduation, this was a bit too much for him. Running away is a good solution when things get out of hand. “Time go reach when we go dey cross to go fetch water, I swear down, I go run comot for here”, he said.

That Sunday afternoon, we walked and inspected all the wells littered around the Family House that were mostly dried up. A mutual friend with the nickname Atesco comes along. Guess what the pleasantries are? They are now about the scarcity of water. Arhawho first asks Atesco if it is the cold that makes him (Atesco) miss Sunday Service. Atesco is yet to reply when Arhawho pops the water question: “Abi water no dey?”

Atesco responds that there is no water but he didn’t come to Sunday service because he went to another church instead. “Water is the only problem,” Arhawho adds as we enter into the Family House. Light has been constant for a long time but water he stressed was the main problem.

The Water Struggle

Ibukunoluwa Lana did well to outline their early morning routine water-struggle.

“We go very far away to get water now. In the mornings, everyone carries themselves to fetch water. You can’t use anybody’s water anyhow. Even if you are pressed, you must ask. We have warned ourselves very well over water issues in this house.” IBK as she fondly called stated. The implications of water drying up in wells have brought several ideas into the heads of several people living in Abattoir. Most especially in the Family House, amongst Corps members.

When Ripples Nigeria quizzed Ibukunoluwa on the possibility of switching locations, she told said that switching locations was not a priority for her now.

“The worst is that I would go to the complex,” she pointed towards the Abattoir complex, “and go and fetch water”, she maintained.

People fetch water by 3am

However, while passing by their first source of water that served them for the past six months which is just five minutes away from the house; Ibukun referred to the well in the uncompleted building as unstable and very dirty, just like Arhawho earlier described it.

“The problem with this one is that when you fetch it, due to debris in it, you have to wait for it to settle down,” she explained.

“But the real issue is that a lot of people fetch water from the well constantly. Hence the reason the water level is always low and dirty. By night it’s okay m, but people would have woken up as early as 3am, 4am to fetch water.”

All of these she said in Yoruba parlance. An optimistic IBK argued that if the well was given enough time to settle, its water would become clean again. She even cited an instance.

“There was a day I came back from school. I was on duty then and I came to fetch water to wash plates. It was very clean and it was in the afternoon.” The situation had gotten so out of hand that IBK admitted she hadn’t been able to wash clothes for a while. IBK who was very particular about the drought, said in the future, she would stay in a house that has water. She refused to accept that the issue was only in the North, as she affirmed that it usually occurred in the South West as well.

“I will stay in a house that has water. If we want to rent a house, I will plead with my husband to get a house that has good water supply. This also happens in the West. The first hostel I stayed in school, this same thing happened. We had two wells, the first one dried up until we moved to a new location that had four wells where several people came to fetch water from. Even in Lagos, in my uncle’s compounding Iyana-Ipaja, people come to fetch water.”

Contaminated Wells

To make matters worse, in addition to the wells that litter the Family House Residence for corps members, there is the existence of one contaminated well in the area. When Ripples Nigeria visited the location, inspecting the wells one after the other, IBK pointed to an abandoned well that was re-opened and called it contaminated.

“People do not use that well because it is contaminated.”

She wouldn’t talk much on the well as she avoided going close it. What she did was waltz pass the well and continued her narrative.

No water for three weeks!

Kayode, a Mass communication Student from Taraba undergoing his Industrial attachment (IT) here in Jos was one of the worst hit victims of the water scarcity. He is a resident of Jenta Adamu and complained of no water for the past three weeks.

“For the past three weeks there has been no water,” he said. “This morning I told you I was not able to have my bath, I just came like that. This is the reason my colleagues failed to show up at the office,” Kayode said, looking very despondent and unkempt. “And we are all living together,” he added.

Kayode explained that the rate at which they were languishing due to the situation at hand was unbearable. What was even worse was the fact that the well just outside their rented apartment kept drying up. Added to the water scarcity was the issue of no money at hand, so buying water was taking a huge toil on their finances as college undergraduates.

“Gaskiya we dey suffer and these past two days we don’t have enough money with us. We have to wait till end of the month before our parents send anything to us. We are just managing ourselves.”

He continued his narrative. “We are buying water, some N50, some N30, it depends. Half keg, they won’t even gree (agree) for N30 sef.”

“We have well outside of our gate but it’s usually dries. There is nothing inside the well, we patronise people that sell water. While talking to Ripples Nigeria, Kayode spotted a water hawker transporting jerry cans on a large wheelbarrow. “All these ones,” Kayode responded, pointing to the water hawkers, “we don’t even see them in our area,” he stated.

Data and Statistics

According to data culled from the Data and Statistics section of the Water and Sanitation segment of the World Health Organization (WHO) http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/environment-and-health/water-and-sanitation/data-and-statistics

and

http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/drinking-water

“In the WHO European Region, 14 diarrhea deaths a day are estimated attributable to inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene.

The WHO European Region met the MDG target for drinking-water in 2015. Still, about 14 million people do not enjoy access a basic drinking-water source, and 62 million people do not have access to piped water on premises. Seven out of ten people without access to a basic drinking-water source live in rural areas”.

The report further noted, that “More than 4.3 million people still rely on surface water from rivers, dams, canals, streams, lakes, ponds or irrigation channels as their primary source, posing severe risks to health. Nine of ten people using surface water live in rural areas.

“Inequalities exist in access to drinking-water and sanitation services. Rural dwellers and the poor are the most disadvantaged. In the Caucasus and central Asia, for example, 19% of the rural population live in homes without access to a basic drinking-water source, as opposed to only 2% of urban dwellers. Even more significantly, 62% of the rural population lacks access to piped water on premises whereas only 10% of town and city residents are similarly disadvantaged.

“842,000 people are estimated to die each year from diarrhea as a result of unsafe drinking-water, sanitation, and hand hygiene. Yet diarrhea is largely preventable, and the deaths of 361,000 children aged under 5 years could be avoided each year if these risk factors were addressed. Where water is not readily available, people may decide hand washing is not a priority, thereby adding to the likelihood of diarrhoea and other diseases. Diarrhea is the most widely known disease linked to contaminated food and water but there are other hazards. Almost 240 million people are affected by schistosomiasis – an acute and chronic disease caused by parasitic worms contracted through exposure to infested water. With children particularly at risk from water-related diseases, access to improved sources of water can result in better health, and therefore better school attendance, with positive longer-term consequences for their lives.

“By 2025, half of the world’s population will be living in water-stressed areas. Re-use of wastewater, to recover water, nutrients, or energy, is becoming an important strategy. Increasingly, countries are using wastewater for irrigation – in developing countries this represents 7% of irrigated land. While this practice if done inappropriately poses health risks, safe management of wastewater can yield multiple benefits, including increased food production. Options for water sources used for drinking water and irrigation will continue to evolve, with an increasing reliance on groundwater and alternative sources, including wastewater. Climate change will lead to greater fluctuations in harvested rainwater. Management of all water resources will need to be improved to ensure provision and quality.”

“Each jerry can costs N25 a piece”

Like Kayode pointed out, the new trend now is water being transported in jerry cans in long wheel barrow-like structures. Ripples Nigeria approached one water hawker who was pushing an empty set of yellow jerry cans via Standard Road formerly known as Joseph Gomwalk road to Terminus while he was going for a refill.

“It is N250,” he responded for the whole jerry cans numbering ten, arranged in his metallic wheelbarrow after getting a go-between to interpret on both ends. He went on to clarify that each jerry can cost N25. The jerry cans were medium sized, estimated to hold about twenty litres. Our correspondent requested he stop by his place to drop some cans of water which he readily agreed to as he set forth to Terminus for a refill.

“It will be worse in January”

In all of these discomfort occasioned by water scarcity and the disappearance of water in wells, there is no silver lining in sight. Several respondents all over the city have confirmed that more wells will dry up come January. This school of thought is the reason for Arhawho’s decision to abandon the Family House. A resident of West of Mines agreed to this fact as well.

“There would be a time when several people will bring their clothes to the well that is around that PRTV side which is a few paces away from the Nigerian Standard building.” There happens to be a footpath, close to the Women Barracks that has now witnessed an audience of people drawing water from Its embers, women mostly. This West of Mines resident was very confident that the situation will get worse. “Come January and you will see people looking for where to wash to clothes.”

Drama at Plateau State Water Board

In a bid to see statistics and interact with Government Parastatals responsible for the provision of portable water in the state, Ripples Nigeria paid a visit to the Plateau State Water Board but was met with stiff rejection and opposition.

On arriving the Plateau State Water Board, our Correspondent asked to speak to the Head of the Water Board who was pointed out to him. The man, dark complexioned, was a brief man, and was donned in brown overalls. He proved very elusive to meet once he sighted our correspondent taking some pictures of the place.

He refused to either introduce himself nor relate with our correspondent as he threatened to throw him out with the use of security men. He instructed our correspondent to send In a letter to the Government, rather than engaging in any chit-chat. The atmosphere became quite charged, as he made a scene to have our correspondent leave the premises.

He said: “Can I call a security man for you? I have given you an answer,” he said as he continued to threaten and harass the reporter.

For a body that was established to control, manage, extend and develop new water works for the sake of providing portable water to the General Public at reasonable charges, the Plateau State Water Board has seemingly not given a good account of itself.

Other allied bodies like Plateau State Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (PRUWASSA) and the Plateau State Ministry of Water Resources and Energy have equally not fared better.

A browse through the achievements row of the websites of these three parastatals reflects claims that are obviously non existent at the grassroots as more people are scared of water drying up in their various homes due to unavailability of portable water.

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