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Zaria and its unending water problem

December 9, 2008
As someone who lives half of his life in Zaria, the ancient city becomes my next home away from my village, Lawanti. I visit Zaria quite often, in fact, if I might be given an option to choose where I want to stay for the rest of my life, I will, with no hesitation choose Zaria. However, over the years the condition of this ancient city has deteriorated because of lack of basic social services, like health care, sanitation, power outages and more disturbing lack of portable water. Although Zaria has the advantage of hosting the great Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, far from that, its people are living in a very pathetic condition. Evidence of this could be deduced from the number of children that died in Zaria and environs as a result of outbreak of measles sometimes last year. But one issue more disturbing to the residents of this ancient city and visitors alike is the issue of acute water shortage, which for years remained albatross in the ancient city. I cannot fully explain why the issue of providing water to Zaria becomes a problem to successive governments despite huge amount of money allocated to both the state and local governments, from the Federation Account. Although this responsibility rests on the state government, but I think the local governments; which comprise Zaria and Sabon Gari have a role to play. In the 1990s the condition of the city was little bit better than what obtains now, because taps were running, not only in Zaria city, but in other places like Sabon Gari, Tudun Jukun and Samaru. But today as I am talking to you, all these places, except for few areas within the city, one finds it very difficult to get portable water especially during the dry season. Geographically the whole city, sat on top of the Zaria batholiths which intruded in molten state and made it very difficult to get ground water, therefore, according to Geologists, contributed to what we see today of dry wells. But if geologists can identify why ground water is difficult to come by in Zaria, why is it that other means would not be devised? Zaria is a city that inhibits more than one million people and the population of the city increases daily due to higher institutions of learning cited there. It is estimated that more than two hundred thousand people enter the city every year, either in search of admission, collect their results or just to escort their wards to school after getting admission or for convocation or graduation ceremonies. Zaria can only be compared to Lagos, Kano, or Abuja when it comes to influx of people into the city. Ahmadu Bello University alone hosts more than one hundred thousand people every year. Talk less of other institutions like the FCE, State Poly, College of Aviation and NITT. Two Local Government hosts these institutions. These are Zaria and Sabon Gari LGAs and considering the huge allocation they receive from the Federation Account, is enough for these two local governments to tackle the issue of water problem in Zaria. For instance, from May 1999 to January 2007, apart from internally generated revenue, Sabongari receives N3.3bn from the Federation Account, while Zaria on its part receives nothing less than N3.8bn, and as I am talking to you no single tap is running in Samaru, Palladan or Zangon Shanu in Sabongari LGA. The main city itself does not have that luxury for years. Even places like Tudun Jukun, where their tabs were running prior to 1999, today after eight years of democratic governance, the tabs in this area are dry, I keep wondering what the priority of most of our leaders is. Several contracts were awarded to tackle the water problem but to no avail. In fact, over N1 billion contracts were awarded more than six years ago. The two local governments combined, that is, Zaria and Sabongari have a total of 115 bore-holes in the area which are mostly funded by the State government through the World Bank and the MDGs. But these bore-holes are nowhere near what is needed to satisfy the people of Zaria from the acute shortage of water they are suffering from. The reality is that the project is a temporary solution measure, the Zaria water problem would require expansion work on Zaria dam, which is estimated to cost about N6 billion. In the circumstance, why shouldn’t the government prioritise the expansion work on the Zaria dam? We can set up all kinds of agendas, and coin slogans but the bottom line is that if we have no priority, we end up achieving nothing. Ask any resident of Zaria of his immediate priority, he will tell you water, followed by energy (electric power) in right order. Then others will follow, which if to be itemised may fill pages. I am not saying the government of Kaduna, Zaria and Sabongari don’t have priority, but what I keep emphasizing is the fact that the government of Kaduna with the two LGAs will do the people of Zaria good if they tackle the acute shortage of water head on, and then go for other problems. Water is a precious commodity in Zaria today, which was never 20 years ago. Like I said earlier, the Zaria water problem needs a holistic approach from the state and the two host local governments. First there is need for the expansion work in the Zaria dam which if completed will supply the whole city. For immediate needs, more boreholes need to be drilled to tally with the number of people living in all the areas in the city. It is wrong to drill a single bore-hole for an area with more than 200 people, because that will not be enough. Instead of solving the problem, you will succeed in creating more. Take for instance in the area I live, there was one bore-hole used by the neighbourhood and more than 500 hundred people live there, which at the end of the day affect all the wells in that area and adding more pressure to the bore-hole. As people in their hundreds line up every morning to fetch water for domestic use. Both the government of Kaduna State and the local government have to put in their 2009 budget the Zaria water scheme, so that the issue will be solved once and for all. Apart from the eleven points of Arch. Namadi’s administration, I think Zaria water problem should be made a priority. Lawanti Village, KM 25, Along Gombe-Bauchi Road, Akko LGA, Gombe State 0805 454 6764, 0803 515 0369, 0809 815 0369

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