The Governing Board of the Federal Teaching Hospital (FTH), Gombe said the tertiary healthcare centre relied heavily on water tankers to get water for day-to-day running of the hospital.
Chairman of the board, Chukwuma Enyi who stated this yesterday when he led members of the board on a courtesy visit to Governor Muhammad InuwaYahaya, said the water scarcity is a serious challenge to the hospital since its inception in 1996.
He said currently the hospital relied 100 percent on the water tankersand boreholes located about eight kilometers from the hospital to get water for the main hospital, administration block and staff quarters.
Enyi added that as a teaching hospital, they need a reliable and uninterrupted water supply source, therefore urged the state government to intervene.
The chairman lamented that apart from water scarcity, many buildings at the hospital are on the verge of collapse due to the effect of gully erosion.
“Erosion is a major challenge the FTH, Gombe faces because most of the buildings are on the verge of collapse. And control of soil erosion is a capital intensive project that requires the joint intervention of federal and Gombe State Governments,” he said. In his response, Governor Yahaya described the visit as timely, saying the state government placed priority on human capital development, which could not be achieved without developing the health sector.
He said he had inaugurated a task force on health aimed at bridging the gap between basic and tertiary health care and assured the board that his administration would address some of the issues raised by them within the limited resources of the state.
