…Pategi, Lafiagi communities rely on contaminated stream water.
…Lafiagi General Hospital gets water from well for operation.
In this report, The Informant247’s Yemi Sodeeq documented how water scarcity in Pategi and Edu Local Government Areas of Kwara State, continues to affect residents and medical facilities despite monumental government expenditures on local waterworks rehabilitation.
The investigation also shows a discrepancy between the government’s reported financial investments and the communities’ continued dependence on contaminated water sources and privately-owned boreholes. It further tells how critical facilities such as the General Hospital in Lafiagi relies on water from well.
Patigi local government area of Kwara State has most of its expanse land area occupied by water. Over the years, the local government has been one of the hardest hit by floods due to the closeness of some communities to River Niger, which stretches across the land as it flows from Niger State.
The residents’ closeness to River Niger is expected to serve as an advantage for creating accessible means of potable water; however, the residents of these communities have lived in the irony of the almost never-dry river that surrounds them.
The Patigi waterworks is one of the many water project initiatives of the Kwara State government. This waterworks, like many across the state, was constructed in the early years of the establishment of the State.
Like most of the government’s projects in Nigeria, the waterworks would later outlive their usage in the face of outdated and dysfunctional equipment. Many of them, like that of Patigi, were abandoned for many years.
Fast forward to 2019, the then newly inaugurated administration of Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, amongst many other things promised to revive most of the moribund water facilities and schemes in the state, including that of Patigi.
After a year in office, the Governor, in his 2021 budget speech delivered to the Kwara State House of Assembly, listed the rehabilitation of 3 water works of Patigi, Lafiagi, and Igbaja as part of his key achievements in the 2020 financial year.
In the 2020 financial statement cited by The Informant247, the state government spent N310,000,007.85 on the rehabilitation and expansion of urban and semi-urban water schemes in 2020.
While the government claimed to have renovated these projects, checks by The Informant247 revealed that the project has failed to provide water despite the millions of taxpayers’ money spent by the government.
Water scarcity persists despite claims of renovation
It was a sunny afternoon on March 9, 2024, when this reporter came across one of the few points where residents of Patigi normally fetch water. The place is uncovered, unrefined, raw, and clumsy. The stream is not only surrounded by thick bush but old heavy trees that make it look odd against the purpose for which it serves.
Believed to be the remnant of the first waterworks that was constructed in Patigi, the washing of clothes and fetching of water by residents at the same spot not only raised questions about the quality of water accessible to residents for use in Patigi but also painted a big image of the struggle and years the stream might have been serving the community.
One of the fetchers at the stream was Bologi Umar Muazu. Bologi works at the Government Technical College, Patigi, and lives in the staff quarters. For his family to get water, Muazu relies on the use of his motorcycles to fetch from the stream.
“I come here twice whenever I want to fetch water with about six jerricans. I will fill my reservoir and come here next after seven days. We do manage the water because it’s what you have in abundance that you don’t manage.
“None of the waterworks in our town is currently working. This is one of the few spots where people fetch water unless you get it from the neighbourhood where some people who have boreholes either sell it or give it for free,” he said.
Visibly unperturbed by the situation, Bologi said many residents who do not have motorcycles would have to bring in their bowls to fetch.
After leaving the stream, this reporter heads to the location of the waterworks that was renovated in 2020.
Some of the residents who are living close to the renovated waterworks claimed that it only worked for a few minutes after the renovation was completed.
Yakubu Muhammed recalled, “Sometimes in 2020, they came here to service some of the equipment and also repainted the office. They only pumped the water for a little period that day and since then- It has never worked again.”
While adding that the equipment had only delivered water during the point of test running due to the availability of electricity, Yakubu noted that the major hindrance to getting water is lack of adequate power supply.
“There are about 14 to 15 workers here who only come here to sit down from Monday to Friday without doing anything because the waterworks are not working. This place can only work if there is a generator,” he said.
According to Yakubu, residents have since resorted to buying water from other residents who have personal boreholes where the price for a bowl of water costs N50 if there is no light and N40 when there is light.
On his part, Muhammed Usman, the Secretary to the Patigi Youth Emirate Association, said the renovation only occurred within the premises of the waterworks and the channels by which the water will flow through into the various designated points across the town had either been disrupted by building of houses or road construction.
“There is no way the waterworks will even serve the community because the water can’t flow through the town as the former channels are not there anymore,” he said.
Usman noted that many letters have been written to the government on the issue but no concrete actions have been taken.
After a tour of Patigi, this reporter moved down to Lafiagi, the headquarters of the Edu local government to also assess the situation of water in the community.
Received by the members of the Lafiagi Emirate Youths Transparency Association, this reporter was conducted around the Lafiagi waterworks. Also, despite claims of renovation by the government, the waterworks have not been able to serve the community.
One of the members of the Association, Abdullahi Usman Babatiti said that some of the equipment in the waterworks are not capable of providing water for the community.
He stated that the last intervention on the waterworks by the government failed to provide the needed results, despite raising the hope of the residents.
He said, “During the renovation, we were told that they are going to install another pumping machine because the existing ones can’t serve the community. The project was ongoing then to the extent that they were doing extension and tapping of the water across the community.”
He continued, “It started well but after the election, we didn’t see anything again. As a matter of fact, the last intervention had many people in the community helping them with sands for the project and supplying water for works-I can’t imagine where the government projects are done that way.”
Issa Mohammed, the Public Relations Officers of the association explained that all the three water tanks that are situated at the waterworks can only fill half of the reservoir which means that some sides of the community might not have access to the water even if it eventually gets supplied from the waterworks.
It was also observed that a transformer which was purposely built to provide electricity supply for the operation of the waterworks is not functioning as some of the cables there are already disconnected.
“The transformer is not really functioning but unfortunately too, we discovered that it will not be economically viable to consider the option of water supply through the generator because when the association in conjunction with the community leaders once bought 100 litres of diesel to power the generator, it worked without giving us any tangible results,” said Babatiti.
“Some of the workers here only come to work but have nothing to do. As a matter of fact, some of the offices are not suitable for usage again,” he added.
Lafiagi General Hospital relies on well water
The scarcity of water in Lafiagi is also affecting the operations of medical activities at the Lafiagi General Hospital.
A visit by this reporter to the hospital revealed that the medical centre has no adequate access to water.
“We don’t have water here. The borehole that was constructed here is no longer functioning and we only fetch from the well that was made for the borehole,” the medical officer who craved anonymity said.
A visit to a flowing river under the bridge that leads to another community where many residents also fetch water and wash off their clothes amongst other things painted a vivid image of the challenges that the community is facing over the lack of water.
Speaking to this reporter at the stream, Fatima Jiya, who had come to the river to wash her clothes, lamented the situation of water scarcity and called on the government to come to their aid.
“This is one of the only major points where we all normally fetch water. As you can see, people come here to wash their belongings and also fetch water they will use at home. The situation is really bad,” she said.
Water commissioner reacts
When contacted, the Commissioner for Water Resources in Kwara State, Usman Yunusa Lade said lack of electricity has hindered the operation of the waterworks.
He said, “The major issue with waterworks is the lack of electricity. All our waterworks are powered by electricity and the state government is working together with the federal government to see that the issue of power is resolved.
“From Gbugbu, Lafiagi, Lade, Patigi and Kpada, they have general electricity issues which have been there before this administration.”
Asked how long the residents would have to wait before the waterworks started supplying them water, he said the government has resorted to supporting the communities with the construction of boreholes to complement the existing ones.
This report was produced with support from Civic Media Lab.