Some towns in Benue State have been suffering from water scarcity, with inhabitants digging shallow holes to get contaminated water for drinking and domestic use.
According to The Cable, one of these settlements is Agasha, where a considerable number of inhabitants rely on a shallow well constructed in a marsh near a dried-up river for water.
According to the publication, people must line up every day with various sizes of bowls and basins to retrieve.
"Every day I come here and watch the water dry up, it makes me cry," an elderly woman identified only as Mama said.
"Not only do we utilize unclean water now, but there isn't enough for everyone." To get any water for your daily needs, you'll have to get up at 3 a.m. and join a long line."
"When that happens, we frequently go to marshy places for water." "That's where illnesses like the one that caused me to go blind emerge from," James, an old Agasha resident, explained.
According to Mike Igber, chairman of Agasha's water, sanitation, and hygiene committee (WASHCom), the military previously provided a hand pump borehole to the village, but it stopped operating "a long time ago" and no attempt has been made to repair it.
"The saddest story is that no state administration has ever done anything about the community's water shortage in the last 50 years," Igber added.
As in Agasha, the river in Ipaav, Gboko LGA, originally serviced the hamlet, but it has now dried up, and inhabitants have erected a makeshift well in a marsh nearby. Despite the fact that the water is filthy, inhabitants have little option but to utilize it for their everyday requirements.
The community representative, Joseph Agibee Terlumun, said it was sad to see the villagers drink the water.
"Like my father, I was born in this village." "I don't know how old this town is, but I can say unequivocally that I have never seen any government agency here," he stated.
"Only during electioneering would some of them send their boys to come and give us items like spices and salt in exchange for voting for them."
According to this magazine, water shortage is not an issue in Oye-Obi, a hamlet in the 66Oju local government area that is surrounded by rivers on all sides. However, while water is constantly accessible, the River Obi, on which the population depends, is perpetually unclean; it is filthy and has a disagreeable odor.
Residents are always at the riverbank, regardless of the level of the water, to scoop some for their daily usage.
"We are now like a community that has never been a part of Benue state or this nation," says Abraham Ogbu Ijih, 72.
"Our lives are now defined by deplorable poverty and deplorable living circumstances." On all sides, we are surrounded by water and forest. Despite this, we are thirsty and have no access to clean water."
Ijih, a visually handicapped man who has lived in Oye his whole life, said he lost his wife and children in 2020 due to a "water plague."
"I lost my sight six years ago. I wasn't blind since I was a youngster. However, I lost my wife and three children to water pollutants in 2020. According to our communal records, there was a time in our hamlet when a water pandemic killed roughly 273 individuals," the former rice farmer explained.
Clement Onaa, chairman of Oju LGA, recognized the communities' water challenges but stated that the state and federal governments had intervened.
"We're collaborating with the state administration and the federal ministry of water resources and environmental sanitation, and we've documented some amount of involvement," he explained.
"Among these initiatives is the installation of solar-powered motorized boreholes for the inhabitants of Oye-Obi." The neighborhood experienced water contamination some time ago, and one of the initiatives was to help them get better water.
"Waters in our area are constantly refilled by rainfall, and when there is no rainfall, the volume of water decreases."
Onaa urged the state and federal governments to dig more boreholes in vulnerable localities.
Shallow wells have been excavated on both sides of the road in the Otobi village, which is located in the Otukpo LGA. Despite the milky color of the water, youngsters may always be spotted nearby, eager to fill their basins and pots to the full.
According to Richard Inalegwu, a member of the village, there is no operating borehole, and all inhabitants drink from the same source, save for those who don't mind going large distances to some neighboring settlements.
that include boreholes
"We don't have any alternatives when it comes to drinking water." "It's either you drink the water or you don't, and I've lived in this neighborhood since I was born," he explained.
Another resident, Rachel Agbenu, who had a pile of soiled clothing to wash, remarked, "The scarcity of water is concerning." My family has been unable to wash our clothing for the past three weeks due to a lack of water. We've even repurposed some of our soiled garments.
"We frequently go to a neighbouring village a bit further away from here only to drink water." Even though, the water is not always pure, the people are constantly too crowded, and there is never enough water to go around. "Sometimes, we spend nights there."
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