Some residents of Abaji Area Council of the FCT have resorted to scooping water from the ground for domestic and other uses as the recent water scarcity in the area worsens.
City & Crime had reported that residents of Abattoir, Low Cost, Anguwar Wadata, Sabon-Tasha, Anguwar Ayaura, Anguwar-Liman and Manko areas in Abaji town have been groaning over the scarcity.
The scarcity, which the residents attributed to power blackouts in the area, has been on for more than three weeks.
A housewife, Rukkaiyat Ibrahim, who resides at Anguwar Ashara, said, “I woke up around 3am and still came and met some of my neighbours on queue waiting to scoop water.”
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She further said, “I have no option despite the unhygienic nature of the water. I have to scoop water from underground for domestic use. And the problem of this water for over three weeks is as a result of lack of electricity.”
Another resident at Anguwar Gbakya, Mrs Salamatu Musa, said she scooped water from the ground from a broken pipe, and that she sometimes trekked to the river to fetch water.
Meanwhile, water vendors, popular known as “mai ruwa”, have increased the price of water in the area as a truck of water that contains 12 jerry cans which was sold at N500 is now sold at N1,200, while a 20 litre jerry can which was sold at N100 is now N200.
There was no response from officials of the council over the scarcity, even though a staff of AEDC who preferred anonymity, told our reporter that the blackout was as a result of a technical fault.
He said, “Every end of year like this, especially between October and December, we usually experience power blackouts, which AEDC is still battling to detect the problem.”
