The people of Takogi ward of Doko in Lavun local government area of Niger state has raised alarm over the contamination of all sources of clean water in the community.
The Nation gathered that boreholes and hand dug wells have been contaminated for over two years and over 150 houses in the community were affected.
A visit by The Nation to the community revealed that the some of the water from these sources have very strong smell of petrol while others have very strong smell of chemicals which cannot be ascertained.
One of the community women who spoke to The Nation, Sarah Jiya Kpachinfugi said that the smell is so strong that they are unable to use it to cook or bath as the smell comes out strong in food when used to cook.
“The water smells, it has been like this for two years. It started with the well before it got into the boreholes. Before, we use our borehole water for everything but everything have changes, we have to collect water for rain or go to other communities that are not affected to fetch water to use. Even if you use the water for washing clothes, the smell comes out strong on the clothes.”
Elisha Jiya of Dazhiworo compound said that it got two of his younger brothers coming down with typoid twice a month for his family to stop drinking the water adding that they suspect the source of the problem is from the underground tanks of a filling station which is located with the neighborhood because of the strong smell of petrol in the waters.
He lamented that the management of the station had denied it but disclosed that laboratory tests carried out by the Federal Ministry of Water Resources regional water quality laboratory revealed that that the preliminary odour, color and taste tested showed that the waters are contaminated with petrol while the dissolved oxygen is unsatisfactory.
Elisha who spoke for other affected members of the community stated that series of letters have been written to the state ministry of health, Ministry of Environment and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) adding that while the state ministries have not replied, DPR claimed to have tested the water and that the water samples were not found to contain any form of petroleum product as suspected.
“In the letter, he said that the water contained some coliforms which are an indicator of micro organism contamination.”
Another youth who identified himself as a member of the Ntakogi household said that they have been giving the warning about the contaminated waters for over two years and nothing is done, “we are trying to avoid impending health hazard and disaster in this community and the government have not responded to our plight. Is it when people start dying that they will respond? We need this issue to be addressed urgently. ”
When the Nation visited the suspected filing station, Jagaba Nope Petrol filling station, the station Manager, Miss Grace Dauda said they have heard the complaints, “we have told them over and over again that none of our tank is leaking, so the source of the contamination cannot be from our station. They should go and find the source of their contaminated water and stop putting the blame on us. ”
She confirmed that DPR had carried out test of some of the waters and showed the Reporter a letter written to them by DPR absolving them from any fault but when shown the water drawn from one of the affected wells, she claimed it was not the water.
“This water cannot be from the well. Why did you not call me when you were going to fetch it, how will I know if the bottle did not have petrol inside when you poured it in. We have concluded this matter and we stand by DPR report. Anywhere that they want to take us to, they should take us to anywhere they want to take us to.”
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The Village Head, Mallam Muhammadu Santeli claimed not to have known that the issue of contaminated waters still persist saying he was not informed.
“I heard about the water contamination complains but after the DPR test which showed that the source of the contamination is not from the filling station, I thought it was put to rest, I did not know that they are still experiencing it. They did not report to me. ”
He was however quiet when asked on what measures was put in place to address the contaminated water as he insisted he did not know about the problem.
Efforts made to get to the Commissioners of Environment and Health proved abortive as moves made to get an official response to steps taken as regarding the letter received about the contamination of water from the Commissioner, Permanent Secretary and PRO were unsuccessful.