Onitsha Water Scarcity: Any Solution?

Mrs Blessing Egwu, a resident of Adada neighbourhood in Onitsha, once sent her child, Chiedu, to fetch water with a 20-litre jerrycan from a borehole in Mazi Okagbo’s house in Umuokoro quarters.

Chiedu returned after an hour with a damaged container and some scratches on his face.

The alarmed mother queried her son about what happened and Chiedu confessed that he was engaged in a scuffle with one of Okagbo’s daughters, who also smashed his container.

Mrs Egwu grumbled aloud about the unsavoury attitude of Okagbo’s children who were always fighting with people who came to their house to fetch water.

The scenario aptly typifies the plight of indigent families that cannot afford the N20 being charged for a 20-litre container of water in most parts of Onitsha and its environs.

The lack of pipe-borne water in the metropolis has been a serious source of concern for health experts who say that it could cause a myriad of health problems for residents of the cosmopolitan city.

The experts stress that the water shortage has compounded the sanitation and health problems of the residents of Onitsha, which has about two million inhabitants and a daily influx of thousands of traders and visitors.

They add that it is now commonplace to see residents storing up water they have already used for washing plates and clothes to enable them to flush their toilets.

Dr Joseph Uyamadu, a medical doctor in Onitsha General Hospital, says that the water situation in Onitsha is becoming quite worrisome because the lack of proper sanitation or hygiene in the city could engender an outbreak of diseases such as cholera, diarrhea and hepatitis.

He stresses that whenever the sources of water are not regulated via a central waterworks; water vendors and traders often take undue advantage of the situation to engage in unwholesome practices, which may involve arbitrary addition of chemical solutions to their water.

“Such practice could lead to chemical reactions in people’s bodies, which could cause severe pains in the digestive organs.

“At the long run; it might lead to dangerous complications such as cancer and renal failure, attributable to excess consumption of chemicals put into the water by untrained practitioners,’’ Uyamadu says.

The residents are increasingly becoming helpless and despondent about the water situation in the city, as they recall that during electioneering, several governorship candidates had made several unfulfilled promises to the electorate regarding the provision of potable water.

“The promises were all a mirage, as successive state administrations virtually did nothing to provide pipe-borne water for the people,’’ says Mrs Nkechi Ugwu, an Onitsha-based lawyer.

Ugwu recalls that the water problems in Onisha started about 12 years ago when the then state government abandoned the Greater Onitsha Water Supply Scheme project, while erosion ravaged the water scheme complex.

The scheme, which was initiated by former President Shehu Shagari‘s administration in the early 1980s, was later handed over to Anambra State Government.

At that point in time, the scheme supplied water via an effective reticulation process to Onitsha and neigbouring communities such as Federal Housing, 33, Nkpor, Awada and some parts of Okpoko.

All through the 1980s and 1990s, the scheme was somewhat working perfectly, as it supplied potable water to homes and industries, while monthly water charges were collected from the people by Anambra State Water Corporation (ANSWC).

Mr Mike Opara, a resident of Nwabueze Street in Onitsha, recalls that when the taps were running in the city, households were sure of the quality of the water they were drinking.

“The lack of drinkable water is our greatest problem nowadays. It is, therefore, little wonder that the sachet water business is flourishing in Onitsha but the purity of the packaged water cannot be guaranteed,’’ he says.

Mr Nnamdi Iweka, the landlord of a house on Eziweka Street, says that it would cost as much as N700,000 to drill a functional borehole, adding that most landlords cannot afford such prohibitive costs.

“At least N400,000 is required for deep drilling; N100,000 for good pumping machine (Sumo); N100,000 for overhead plastic tanks and N100,000 for the overhead scaffold and other reticulation materials,’’ he says.

However, this is not to suggest that the government is unmindful of the harrowing experience which Onitsha residents undergo in getting water to drink, as the current state government has shown considerable interest in resuscitating the Greater Onitsha Water Supply Scheme.

Gov. Peter Obi had invited some investors and development partners to scrutinise the scheme and see how they might contribute ideas or funds to efforts to revive it.

The Anambra State Government also entered into a concessional agreement with Water Trade International Ventures Nigeria Ltd. in 2009 to rehabilitate and restructure the scheme.

The company was expected to run the scheme for 15 years before handing it over to the state’s water corporation.

However, when it became apparent that the company could not raise the funds required to execute the project, the state executive council cancelled the concessional agreement.

Gov. Obi also collaborated with the Federal Government; European Union (EU) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to rebuild existing water facilities, especially the Onitsha water scheme, while initiating new water projects across the state.

In the partnership, the state government received a N728-million grant from the EU.

Besides, the governor secured the Federal Government’s collaboration in the resuscitation of the Onitsha water scheme with N1.28 billion. The state government was expected to contribute N600 million out of the funds.

The contract, awarded to Fung-Tai Engineering Company in 2009, was, however, terminated on Aug. 24, 2010 by the then Minister of Water Resources, Chief Obadiah Andoh, after inspecting the project.

Andoh said: “This project is shoddy, behind schedule and did not follow laid-down specifications. A probe panel will be set up to know whether the quantity of work done at the site corresponds with the amount released to the contractor.’’

The minister, who apologised to the residents for the delay in the execution of the project whose contract he terminated, nonetheless, assured them of President Goodluck Jonathan’s determination to restore regular water supply to Onitsha.

In pragmatic terms, the termination of the contract for Onitsha water scheme means that the residents of the city will have to wait longer for the anticipated succour to their water supply problems.

But Mr Emeka Nwankwu, the Commissioner for Public Utilities, insists that since 2006 when Gov. Obi assumed office, he has been making tangible efforts to rectify the water supply situation by rehabilitating dysfunctional water schemes across the state.

“The challenges facing the resuscitation of the water supply projects include inadequate finance; impact of gully erosion on water facilities; erection of buildings on water pipelines’ right of way and vandalism of water facilities by water vendors,’’ he says.

The commissioner concedes that the resuscitation of Onitsha water scheme will cost billions of naira, which the state government cannot afford.

He, nonetheless, pledges that the state government would partner with the Federal Government, EU and UNICEF to rebuild the facility.

All the same, Nwankwu says that the state government has constructed new sizable water schemes across the three senatorial districts of the state, so as to empower the state’s water corporation to resume its operations.

“I assure the residents of Onitsha and its environs that Gov. Obi and the Federal Government are deeply concerned about their plight; they are doing everything possible to get the scheme back on course for the benefit of our people,’’ he says.

Many observers, however, wonder why the state government, the Federal Government and their partners could not draw water from River Niger; filter, disinfect and reticulate it to nearby neighbourhoods, in view of the water challenges facing Onitsha residents.

To buttress their arguments, some of the observers quote the literary icon, Chinua Achebe, as once saying: “A man who lives on the banks of the Niger (river) should not wash his hands with spittle’’.

Stanley Nwanosike