By Aliyu Haruna

At it quenched the administrative thirst of the entire provinces in the most vast region in the then young independent nation. Since the first state creation exercise in 1967, when the region was fragmented into twelve states, it has remained the political capital of Northern Nigeria, sustained as such by the northern states, quenching their thirst for a convenient basis of unity in the pursuit of common interests within the federation.
However, this “capital city” of the North and the province-size area it now administers as state are thirsty of water, perhaps even thirstier of the commodity than some of the northernmost provinces it has weaned into states over the decades.
The state water board (KSWB) saddled with the responsibility of the provision of portable water to the people of the state is on the verge of collapse after a long period of seeming incapacity to discharge that essential responsibility in recent years.
The situation even stirs more concern if viewed within the wider context of sub-saharan Africa where access to safe drinking water has constituted one of the most serious problems evoking the concern of the global community on the continent. The problem still seems intractable.
In Kaduna State in particular, although progress is being made in a number of ways by all tiers of government to provide this most essential commodity abundantly to the people, the growing demand of the commodity in the face of fixed or dwindling resources and the worsening ecological problem in the region, the problem of sufficient supply is likely to deepen in many parts of the state, constituting a heavier burden on the water board which has not been expanded for several years. This is considering the fact that the revised 1991 census result put the projected annual growth rate of the state at 2.83 percent.
Reviewing the entire history of existence, water supply is vital to every day life. It is an inevitable need for every development at all. In fact the level of civilisation and development of any geographical unit is determined by the availability and level of sophistication employed in the distribution and supply of its water resources.
Throughout history people have devised systems to achieve more convenience in sourcing, distributing and using water. Early Rome had indoor plumbing, which is a system of aqueducts and pipes that terminated in homes and at public wells and fountains for people to use.
Nigeria, from the almost inexhaustible water potential in the south, particularly the Niger Delta, to the desert-stricken parts of the Sahel north, its distribution poses some difficulties for multi faceted development processes. Although modern water supply systems get water from a variety of locations, including aquifers, lakes, rivers, wells, desalinated sea water and other sources, this water is often not purified.
The intake from these water sources is usually through a large cage-life box designed to screen out large particulate matter before it enters the system after it is sucked by a pumping station or allowed in by a gravity feed system, which is usually filtered further, chlorinated, flocculated and then pumped either to locations like water towers or reservoirs, or fed directly into user’s spigot.
Municipalities typically run water supply systems, although, sometimes, this is the job of a regional supplier that has no independent government structure and taxing authority. Once water is used, it has to go some where. Typically waste water is piped out in a sewage system, which is again almost always a service provided by the same authority as the water supply, since usage of one system implies usage of the other.
Due to inadequate drinking water supply to the people, Nigerians have been devising a lot of means for its supply for direct human consumption. According to records right now there are over 40 kinds of bottled water in Nigeria. About 70 percent of the bottled water around is allegedly packed under unhygienic conditions. If subjected to rigorous laboratory analysis, the whole packs may fail the quality test.
The resultant effect of producing unhygienic water is that of endangering the life of day old babies who consume this it, thereby exposing them to water borne disease. The water producers do not put into cognisance that fact the babies do not have a good immune system like adult. This situation has now constituted as much a huge problem in Kaduna State as in anywhere all over the country.
The perennial water supply problem in the state has reached an alarming state, necessitating the State House of Assembly to mandate its committee on water resources under the leadership of honourable David Kushuai Avong at a plenary session on a motion of urgent importance to investigate the circumstances surrounding the water board and recommend likely solutions.
The problems of the board, according to one of its operational staff, who spoke under anonymity, range from the dilapidation of most of the machines of the plants that were installed in the 1980s, the inability of successive governments in the state to provide the adequate funds for the maintenance of the plants and lack of motivation of the staffs of the board due to the non payment of their salaries on time.
Other problems of the board include lack of vehicles for the staff required, particularly in emergency cases where certain repairs have to be made as well as poor revenue collection at the end of the month which occurs due to the fact that the general public default in the payment of the water bills, arguing that they do not see the need to do so when they do not enjoy commensurate services. For instance, the Malali water treatment plant which has capacity to produce 150 million litres per day, cannot produce up to 30 percent of that volume required for consumption in the Kaduna metropolis as most of the machines and infrastructures there are dilapidated.
Another official of the board, confirmed that for over two years that the chlorine cylinder required for the disinfection of bacteria has not been made available. This situation makes the water pumped to the general public unsafe for drinking. His lamentation border more on the fact that the balancing tank where the water settled when it is pump from the river is not adequately working due to fact that “government have abandoned the board for a reason best know to those on the position of authority.”
Another anonymous staff said that what bothered him most is the “unnecessary” retrenchment of over 52 workers of the board for collecting unofficial IOU you from the boards cashier as a result of non-payment of salaries on time, she lamented as at the time filing this report that their February and March salaries had not be paid, saying that at times their salary is delayed for about two to three months before it is paid to them.
The board which has total staff strength of about 3,000 pays the sum of N22 million as salary to its workers out of over an average of N38 million accruing to it as revenue to the monthly.
According to her, when salaries of staff are not paid as at when due, the management of the board always claimed that the money is being used to pay contractors, who are mostly politicians that allegedly paved the way for the appointment of the general manager of the board.
Recently, however, the state government bought two water tankers to supply water to the Zaria metropolis and its surrounding communities and the state governor, Alhaji Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi, had even invited the world bank to come to the aid of the state. A contract have also been awarded for the installation of new intake pump which is used for the treatment of water at treatment plants.
Despite such steps taken by the governor, some of the staff of the board felt that, he has a lackadaisical attitude to the provision of water supply to the people of the state, saying that during his visit November last year, he only concentrated on the contractors handling some of the projects in the plants. According to them, he also has a nonchalant attitude to the welfare of the staff that steer the activities of the board, adding that the and retrenchment of the 52 staffs of the board was done by the management without taking into cognisance the fundamental human right of the staff.
The chairman of the assembly committee on water resources, Mr. David Avong, at press briefing after touring the water board, expressed the urgent need for the provision of alternative power supply to the board because of the erratic power supply from the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA). Avong observed also that there are some natural spring water sources in the state that needed to be tapped and supplied to the surrounding areas where they are found in order to alleviate the suffering of the people.
Avong, who represents Kaura constituency, said that based on the assessment of his committee, immediate steps have to be taken by the state government to save the state water board from collapse, adding that the Kaduna House of Assembly would soon invite all the district managers, plants managers and the general managers of the board to assess what they perceive to be the problem hindering the supply of water to the general public in the state.
The board, which has been suffering from non-payment of its accumulated water bill by federal government establishments, military formation and the Nigeria police force for several years, according to the committee chairman, has to adopt strategies to ensure that all the debts owed by such establishments are deducted at source from their allocations from their headquarters in order to pay the board so that lasting solutions could be found to the problem of drinking water supply in the state.