When residents of Shuni in Dange-Shuni Local Government Area of Sokoto State saw construction workers on a site in April 2021, they were ecstatic. The hard labour expended in getting water from the well and other sources would soon stop, they thought. But their joy was short-lived for a different reason.

“We found out that it is not free, we have to buy water from them,’’ Lauwali Muhammadu, a 45-year-old resident, said. Like other residents of Shuni, Mr Lauwali buys water from the borehole daily for domestic uses.

According to the 2020 national budget, the communities were billed to benefit from new boreholes under the budget of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The boreholes were indeed sunk but residents cannot access the water without paying.

“We buy N10 or N20 per jerry can and thousands of other nearby areas usually gather their things in a long queue to buy water from this borehole every day,’’ Mr Lauwali said.

Like Shuni, neighbouring Mahe also got a new borehole. The community dwellers also buy from the government-funded borehole.

While the fees paid have helped in sustaining the running of the boreholes, the lack of accountability from the handlers is forcing community dwellers to ask questions.

Speaking to UDEME, the Mahe community chief, Usmanu Mahe, said the water was free for all at the beginning but the need to provide electricity informed the charges.

“The solar panels that the contractors put are not enough for the borehole here at Mahe. As a result of that, it’s hard for even one tank to be full. That’s why we suggested that we should collect money so that it can help us to pump more water,” Mr Mahe said.

In 2020, N20.9 million was allocated for the provision of boreholes, toilets in markets, and schools in Dange/Shuni Local Government Area of Sokoto State. The projects were sponsored by Balarabe Kakale, the lawmaker representing Bodinga, Dange/Shuni and Tureta federal constituency.

A document from the Office of the Accountant-General shows that all constituency projects proposed by lawmakers and inserted into the Nigerian budget for 2020 were fully funded, meaning that the whole amount for the project has been released.

However, when the reporter visited the location of the boreholes in Shuni and Mahe communities, he witnessed that people buy water from those two boreholes.

UDEME tried to reach the lawmaker who facilitated the project but he did not answer calls and messages.

Many residents who spoke to UDEME complained about the charges; they would prefer to get the water free as it is a government project. ‘

However, handlers of the project insisted that the water projects would have been abandoned if not for the maintenance contribution they gathered in form of sales.

Aliyu Abubakar, the maintenance manager, who is in charge of the borehole at the Shuni market area, explained why they charge money for fetching water.

“Yes! We are selling water for people and since the borehole was built in 2021, nobody or any politician supported us to pump water. We are using the money for maintaining the generator. We just need to be collecting something to take responsibility,’’ Mr Aliyu said.

Mr Aliyu said that a committee was set up to oversee this maintenance. Every day, the community makes about N6,000 from the sale of water, totalling about N180,000 in a month.

The maintenance manager at Mahe failed to disclose his accountability process when UDEME probed.

It is worthy of note that many projects, especially ZIPs, lie abandoned in Nigeria due to lack of maintenance after construction. The usual practice is for the supervising agency to take charge of the project handed over to the local government. However, paucity of funds, supervision mismatch and lack of will from the authorities have forced many projects to the ground.

One sustainable way of surmounting this is for communities to own projects and contribute to maintenance. This is in line with the World Health Organisation (WHO) 1972 Alma Ata Declaration, which recommends that communities should own public health facilities ‘through their full participation and at a cost that the community and country can afford to maintain at every stage of their development.’

This recommendation has been adopted beyond health facilities and is currently being practised in some parts of Nigeria – Shuni and Mahe included.

However, the people of the communities are still not aware of the need for this and the lack of accountability from the handlers makes this worse.

For instance, while the handler at the Mahe borehole is unable to account for the proceeds from water sales, Mr Aliyu cannot account for inflows and outflows at Shuni.

“I don’t have any account where I save the funds but I hold them with me,” he said. “There is a person among the committee that I used to tell that I bought this, I bought that from the funds,’’ he added.

At Shuni market, Maisango Aliyu toils for water every day for the use of his family of two wives and 10 children.

A peasant farmer, Mr Aliyu spends at least N100 daily to buy water from his earnings from the farm.

‘’If I have money, I use to buy 10 jerry cans every day and we buy each jerry can at the rate of N10 to 20. Now that my business has stopped. I find it uneasy buying the water,’’ Mr Aliyu said.

Another resident of Mahe community, Malami Usmanu, is happy the borehole affords him easy access to water. But like some other residents who spoke to UDEME, Mr Usmanu is not aware that a government-funded project may not be free.

“Providing this borehole has made it easier for us to buy water from a closer spot, compared to when we brought it at the rate of N20 per jerry can from a far distance,” Mr Usmanu, who buys a minimum of 20 jerry cans per day, said.

An activist, however, says it is wrong for poor residents to be asked to pay for potable water.

Auwal Musa, the executive director of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center (CISLAC) and head of Transparency International in Nigeria, said the provision of social amenities, like potable water, constitutes the major purpose and function of government and should be freely accessed by the people.

“Provision of social service at the community level like a borehole drilled from public funds, primarily to bridge the gap in water supply, is expected to be provided free of charge to the people. Any attempt to milk revenue from the community through such service must be reported and thoroughly investigated; as an effort to alleviate people’s suffering should not be commercialized,” he said.

The Institute of Peace and Conflict Resolution, the agency that supervised the project, could not be reached. When contacted through the number on its website, the receiver commented that the line was not that of the agency. The agency could not be reached via its Twitter handle as well.

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All content is Copyrighted © 2020 The Premium Times, Nigeria