For two decades or more, residents of Enugu State had harrowing experiences in terms of lack of potable water. Most residents resorted to getting water from vendors as a result of the terrible state of the public water supply. DAMIAN DURUIHEOMA reports that Governor Peter Mbah has made good his electoral promises by reactivating water schemes in the state which is now supplying residents of the metropolis with regular water
It is incontrovertible that residents of Enugu State have had more than a fair share of water crisis. For upwards of 20 years, residents of the Enugu metropolis and, indeed, the entire state were having harrowing experiences trying to get potable water or any kind of water at all from water vendors as a result of the terrible state of the public water supply.
For those who could afford it, they bought plastic water tanks while others started digging wells for water, which usually dries up immediately dry season sets in. Even at that, it is not in every place that well water was available as quite a few landlords were able to get well water, but mostly unhygienic, for their tenants.
As a result of the situation, the water instantly became a very lucrative business, which only the rich could afford. People began to invest in water tanker truck businesses which flourished. Most large-scale users such as hotels, hospitals, schools and churches had to acquire tanker trucks to afford themselves some reliability of supply of the commodity.
Average-income families had to queue endlessly to fetch water from tanker trucks that supplied water in a very unreliable and epileptic fashion, while prices of potable water skyrocketed.
For instance, a tanker of water costs between N28,000 and N35,000 depending on location and the size of the tank. For those who bought water in jerry cans, a 30-liter jerry can of water was sold for between N200 and N250 for clean water, while coloured water from wells cost between N50 and N100.
In areas such as New Haven and Independence Layout Enugu where well water is hardly available, some of the residents, particularly Umuezebi, New Haven in Enugu Town fetch water from Ugbo-Ogrugru stream close to a dumpsite and unclean even to the ordinary eye, while those of Independence Layout fetch from Mmili Ani Stream situated at the back of Chinatown Building, Independence Layout area of Enugu State, also very close to a dump site. Because they could not afford to buy distributed water from the suppliers, this became their only option.
Findings showed that they used the water to cook, bathe and wash clothes, while households who did not have options drank the water after boiling it.
According to WaterAid Nigeria, over half of the state’s residents lack basic water services. Its research shows that lack of access to water contributes to poverty and poor health, with almost one in 10 children under age five being stunted. This is exacerbated by the topography of the state, which is covered by coal and makes access to groundwater difficult with no permanent solution to it.
Year after year, the water crisis became persistent in Enugu. To many, the Enugu public water supply from Enugu State Water Corporation was jinxed. In the past 20 years, every effort made by residents, business owners and the media to have the public water supply brought back to its good old days invariably met a brick wall.
A promise kept
These days, however, residents of the state capital are singing a new song. On Saturday, November 25, 2023, the day Governor Peter Mbah clocked 180 days in office, the newly reconstructed ultramodern water scheme was inaugurated, bringing relief to millions of residents in the metropolis.
The water challenge had been a major campaign issue for candidates during the 2023 electioneering campaigns. To demonstrate how serious he was, before his assumption of office on May 29, 2023, Governor Peter Mbah had vowed to make public water supply run in every household within the Enugu metropolis. And exactly 180 days in office, the governor forced the era of water scarcity to become history as the public taps started running again with the results showing in homes and other public water galleries within the capital city.
Looking back to the campaign days before the elections, where it all started, Governor Mbah said it became evident to him that the challenge of water supply was fundamental to the achievement of his objective to take the state’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from its current position of $4.4 billion to $30 billion within the next four to eight years.
“It was clear to us that the status of water supply at the time was deplorable,” he said.
Continuing, Mbah said: “One doesn’t need to be a rocket scientist to discern that a few investors will be attracted to the state under such dire circumstances, neither can existing businesses expand to generate additional jobs and economic growth. If anything, these conditions are suffocating businesses and households and leading to unnecessary suffering across the state.
“Faced with this fundamental issue, and considering the suffering of Ndi Enugu, it was only natural that we identified the provision of water as one of our first targets in the drive to execute our mandate and social contract with citizens of Enugu State.
“We also chose to give ourselves a target of resolving this challenge in 180 days; not for the purpose of chest-thumping but rather because firstly, the issue is urgent. We did not want Ndi Enugu to suffer unduly for even one minute longer than avoidable, and secondly, we saw this as an opportunity to galvanise Ndi Enugu for the tough tasks ahead and whip our administration into gear as quickly as possible.
“When we communicated this promise, it triggered disbelief in most quarters and that is, perhaps, understandable. After all, Ndi Enugu have seen before now countless successive but unsuccessful attempts to address this problem.”
The governor expressed happiness that 180 days after he made the promise of getting water to every household; he had inaugurated the new ultramodern water scheme with a capacity to deliver 70 million litres of potable water daily to businesses and families in Enugu.
While noting that this was but the first phase, Mbah said that “in a few weeks, we will also be inaugurating new pumps in Oji Water Scheme to enable us to deliver another 50 million litres of water every day.
“This will give us a total daily delivery of 120 million litres in Enugu, about twice the daily demand of Enugu urban.
“We are currently supplying water at appreciable pressures to Enugu municipality and I can state here and now that pipe-borne water is here to stay.
However, it is certainly not yet time to shout Uhuru. That is because the existing water pipe network does not service a number of major residential areas which developed since the last major pipe-laying projects in Enugu. We will need to continue the effort to extend pipe-borne water to them.
“In addition, the towns outside Enugu also have varied degrees of water problems. Now that we can see the end of the water issues around Enugu urban, we must not refocus on addressing towns such as Nsukka, Oji, Udi and other areas.
“Finally, but certainly not least importantly, we still have our rural areas, where clean water availability is still not assured. We must now begin to examine and deploy creative location-specific water supply solutions across all the local government areas. This will enable us to achieve the minimum levels of water sufficiency, sanitation and hygiene which will position us to meet the sustainable.”
Residents react
Expectedly, some residents of Enugu metropolis reacted to the news of public water supply returning back to the capital city, praising Governor Mbah for ending the perennial water scarcity within the state capital just in 180 days in office as promised during the campaigns.
The residents, who described Governor Mbah as the type of leader they look up to emulate in the future, regretted that the Enugu people had suffered acute water shortages that impugned their humanity for over 20 years.
One of the residents and former Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo described the administration’s massive investment in water resources through Internally Generated Revenue and 120 million litres daily volume of water recorded in 180 days, as a miracle.
According to him, Mbah had redefined governance and rebuilt public confidence in the government.
“In the past, we used to hear that the government earmarked a lot of things, but nobody gets to see them. But we are now “eye-marking” a solemn promise that was made and kept,” Nebo stated.
Speaking during one of the governor’s stopovers to inspect some reconnected institutions and inaugurated some of the 96 water galleries constructed around the city, the Senior Prefect of Godfrey Okoye University Secondary School, Master Radiance Kamah expressed the joy and appreciation of the students to the governor.
Kamah said: “Not long ago, you came into this state, you started improving Enugu and I am very sure that by next year, we will be ranking among the first best states in Nigeria. I can remember the 11th convocation held at Nike, we could see different stuff this beautiful construction going on. But it wasn’t completed then. To the glory of God, with you and your inspections, this has been built. With not much time, you have completed it and you are inaugurating it today.
“And I know this will send to the students and the youth of Nigeria, how a good leader should be and how they should begin to form themselves so that at the end when it will be our turn, we would have that sense of how to govern a country and a state. I pray that maybe when you will reach the top of the Presidency, you will change Nigeria for good.
“Ndi Enugu, you are lucky to have a governor such as this and I know other states will be jealous.”
For the Director of Communications and Public Enlightenment of the Centre for Humanity, Peter Ugwu, the group is pleased to identify with the governor for fulfilling his promise in record time.
According to him, the abundance of water achieved by the Mbah administration in 180 days could have taken any other serious government at least four years to record.
Ugwu said: “According to the World Bank, about 70 million Nigerians do not have access to safe drinking water, while approximately 114 million do not have access to basic sanitation facilities. This has affected people’s health, well-being and economic productivity.
“This is why The Centre for Humanity is pleased to identify with the grand success registered by Governor Peter Mbah in the provision of potable water in Enugu City in 180 days, especially the inauguration of the 9th Mile 24/7 Water Scheme, backed by a 4.4MW backup gas-powered electricity generation plant to guarantee non-stop water supply to Enugu metropolis going forward.
“Raising water production capacity from an occasional two million litres to 120 million litres daily is a great mileage, and we trust that the governor will, as promised, now concentrate on fixing the bursting pipes and willful vandalisation and sabotage, which result in loss of huge quantities of water,” the Centre stated.
Ugwu also urged Enugu residents to own the facilities and protect them against vandals and those out to sabotage efforts to have the people enjoy public water after over two decades.
