Aviashima Toom, Makurdi
Water, no doubt, is the most essential of the basic needs of mankind. Whereas man can live without other basic needs like shelter and clothing, nobody can do without water.
Equally true is the saying that water is life. Perhaps, this explains the high number of water-borne diseases, poverty, hunger and mysterious deaths in Benue State.
The state is a clear case of a society dying of hunger in the midst of plenty. Despite the River Benue it hosts, it is one of the states in the federation that has been hit by acute water scarcity, thereby creating fears of a possible outbreak of water-borne diseases.
Buying water for domestic use is nothing new; it has become part of the people’s way of living. However, the situation now has been made worse by water vendors, who consider it as one of the most lucrative businesses in the state and, in a bid to make brisk money, take water directly from River Benue and sell same to unsuspecting consumers in the town.
Areas worst hit are Wadata, High Level, Wurukum, North Bank, Gyado Villa and the high brow Judges Quarters, a neighbourhood on the outskirts of the town where the prominent citizens in the state reside.
At the moment, most inhabitants of the town have resorted to buying water from water tankers and some private water vendors, who buy in large quantities from water tankers and retail to consumers.
The scarcity has also elicited sharp increases in water rates, as a 20-litre can of water, formerly sold for N20, now costs N50 while 1000-litre water tank now goes for as high as N6, 000.
READ ALSO: NDLEA arrests 20 illicit drug dealers in Anambra
A vendor, Suleman Awalu, told The Nigerian Xpress correspondent that he had to relocate from Gombe State to Benue State in order to make money through selling water.
He said that was why he brought his trucks and jerry cans to Makurdi in company with one of his friends, called Aminu.
When contacted, the General Manager of Benue State Water Board, Micheal Dzungu, attributed the current water scarcity to a drop in water levels in the state and not the inability of the Board to pump the commodity.
He said the situation was not new since it was common knowledge that reticulation had been major problem of inadequate capacity of the water situation in the state.
Dzungu said that the situation could be traced back to a policy hitch that dated back to 1978 when the reticulation was done, which could not sustain the present population of the state.
