Tongo village is located about 68km from Gombe city, along the Gombe-Potiskum highway.
The village, populated by thousands of residents, is one of the ‘big towns’ in Funakaye Local Government Area of Gombe State.
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However, despite its high number of population and economic importance to the Funakaye LGA and the state at large, people of the area rely solely on the brownish water they scoop from a pond underneath a valley, for their domestic use.
According to people of the area, they feel neglected by the authorities at the local government headquarters in Bajoga and the state government, over what they describe as their leaders ‘indifference’ to their plights.
Apart from large deposit of gypsums, one of the raw materials used by Ashaka Cement Company to produce cement, Tongo is the hometown of Yaya Bauchi Tongo, the member representing Gombe/Kwami/ Funakaye Federal Constituency at the House of Representatives.
The community said they felt neglected by their representatives, after they won elections into the various offices they are occupying.
Some of the people, who spoke to North-East Trust, expressed worry over the use of dirty water to survive.
According to Malam Muhammadu Tongo, the people have no alternative than to drink water collected from a valley because it was the only source they have for their domestic usage.
“We survive 100 percent on this water; we drink it, cook our food and wash our cloth and even our animals drink from the same pond,” he said.
Malam Tongo claimed that he grew with his parents going to the valley to fetch water, “and till now that I am married with children the situation is still the same.”
He said in the past, they used to have boreholes in some parts of the village, but since they broke down some years ago, nothing has been done to repair them and provide new ones.
Another member of the community, Talba Ardo Baddi, said they are using the dirty water as there is no other option.
He said some of the affluent among them filter the water with alum before using, “but most of us drink it like that.”
On his part, Malam Kawu Tongo expressed sadness over their plight which included lack of clean water over the years and appealed to the appropriate authorities to come to their aid.
“They should please assist us with new boreholes and repair the faulty ones, this will save our people from diseases, especially typhoid and malaria that are very common in the village,” he said.
Our correspondents observed that apart from portable water, the community also lacks access to good healthcare services.
The only Primary Healthcare Centre serves as a dispensary clinic, while their schools are in bad shape.
Several efforts to get reactions from both the state and Funakaye local authorities yielded no results up till the time of filing this story yesterday.
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