Abuja – March 21, 2024 – Viewpoint Housing News.
Residents of the Shapi village in Kwali region Council’s Gumbo ward have bemoaned the lack of water in the region and begged Nyesom Wike, the minister of the FCT, to dig a borehole in the area to help them.
Residents informed the media that although cows frequently drink from their water ponds, there are occasions when they fight with them for water.
Emma Yakubu, a Shapi resident, who spoke with the media, said that from the community’s founding more than a century ago, there has never been a borehole there and that instead, locals have had to hike to the marsh to dig out sand and collect water for household use.
He claimed he had written to the local council officials multiple times, pleading with them to help the people by digging a borehole, but the council had not responded favourably to his requests.
A woman, Mrs. Asabe Daniel revealed that she gets up as early as 4 am every day to visit the stream.
“You have to leave home early, especially during this dry season, to go and dig out the swamp. Once the water has gathered, you will now use calabash to fetch,” the woman explained.
Even while she acknowledged that cows also drink from the swamp, she added that the community’s main issue has been the lack of a borehole.
The chief of the Shapi community, Etsu Ishaku Ibrahim, also expressed concern over the water problem, adding that the village has a population of over 400 but has no access to potable water.
He said politicians had been coming to campaign during elections over the years but they are not doing anything to help them thereafter.
“My subjects always trek to cast votes at the Piri polling unit during elections. So, you can imagine the distance my people covered to go and cast vote during elections only for us to be abandoned thereafter,” he said.
He appealed to the FCT administration to come to the aid of the community by sinking a borehole to alleviate the suffering of the people.
Reacting, an official of the works department of the council, who is also a close ally of the council chairman, but preferred anonymity, said the council had already captured a borehole project for the community in its 2024 budget.
