Blackout in North: Water scarcity hits Bauchi, environs

Following the two weeks of blackouts from the national electricity power supply that have grounded almost all activities, water scarcity has hit the Bauchi metropolis and environs.

People can be seen looking for available sources of water, particularly in the GRA and other areas where a few individuals are allowing people to fetch from their boreholes.

Concerned over the situation in the state, the State Governor, Sen Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir, has released funds for the purchase of diesel to pump portable drinking water to the people of the metropolitan city.

The disclosure was made by the Board Chairman of the State Water Board, Alh Yayanuwa Zainabari, while briefing journalists along with the Permanent Secretary of Bauchi State Urban Water and Sewerage Corporation, Engr Aminu Aliyu Gital, on Wednesday.

He said that potable drinking water would be supplied solely to cushion the effects of the water scarcity on the people.

They said that aside from the skeletal services, trucks of water tanks would be moving around major streets to provide portable drinking water as a complement to all the measures.

According to them, at the initial stage, Bala Mohammed had earlier repaired the faulty transformer at the Gubi Dam site main treatment plant as well as settled the entire outstanding bill of Jos Electricity Distribution Company (JEDC) before the collapse of the National grid.

Yayanuwa Zainabari and Engr Aminu Aliyu Gital appealed to the people of Bauchi State to bear with the situation, assuring that the government will continue to support the people in those directives to cushion the effect until normalcy returns to the sector.

They also called on members of the general public to always avoid vandalisation of Water pipes and unnecessary waste of portable drinking water.

In the same vein, Executive Secretary of the Bauchi State Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board, Abdulrahman Imam, has directed the distribution of water through water tanks to some areas of the Bauchi metropolis

The gesture is to alleviate the suffering people are facing because of the non-availability of water from Gubi following the two-week electricity power supply blackout in the Northern States.

ALSO READ THESE TOP STORIES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE 

• State of States Report: How Naira devaluation exposed many states to greater financial risk

• Global commodity prices set to fall amid oil glut, World Bank warns

• BREAKING: Abuja Court stops CBN from releasing monthly allocations to Rivers govt

• Dangote backs Tinubu’s CNG drive, invests over $280m in trucks, infrastructure

• Dangote Refinery asks Court to void import licenses of NNPCL, Matrix, four others

• VIDEO: I would’ve gotten third term if I had wanted it — Obasanjo