Kwara community groans over water scarcity

Residents of Okuta in the Baruten local government area
of Kwara State on Tuesday cried out for help over the
perennial water shortage in the border community.
A cross-section of the people who spoke with the News
Agency of Nigeria urged governments at all levels to
urgently alleviate their plight of lack of adequate potable
water supply in the community.
Malam Aliyu Umar, the Gunubero of Okuta, told the
NAN that the waterworks in the community had not been
operated in the last three years.
This, according to the traditional ruler, is due to its
network of pipes, which has gone bad.
“Our major problem here is the distribution network,
which has gone bad. The pipes have become broken in the
last three years and nothing has been done about restoring
the network.
“There is need for new pipes to be laid and for the
distribution network to be extended to other areas that
were not covered in the past, because of the rapid growth
of the town”, he said.
The Gunubero said that the present sources of water in
the community were through wells, hand pumps and one
motorised borehole, which he said, were not adequate for
the town’s population.
“We are seriously facing the problem of perennial water
shortage. It has started now and if you come here by
January, you will pity our situation,” he told NAN.
Umar explained that shortage of water was peculiar to
Okuta than its other neighbouring communities in the local
government.
He appealed for urgent assistance from government and
bemoaned how a dam project by the Federal Government
through the Lower Niger River Basin Development
Authority, which was sited in the community was later
diverted to another community, a few years ago.
Also speaking on the issue, Mrs Hassanat Abubakar, a
housewife, explained how women in the border area
suffered to get water for domestic use, once the dry
season sets in.
She pleaded with the government to assist in the provision
of adequate water supply to the area, to ease the
difficulties faced by women and children in sourcing for
water.
An official of the Kwara Water Works Scheme in the
town, who spoke to NAN on condition of anonymity, said
that poor power supply compelled the unit to stop work
about three years ago.
He added that the situation had now been compounded by
the rusty distribution pipe network, as well as the need to
expand the network, following the growing population of
the town.
The source, however, declined to provide estimates
required to restore full operations at the facility.
Okuta, with an estimated population of over 100, 000
persons, is the largest town in the Baruten local
government area of Kwara State.