Who drinks the Nbillions in water ministries?

There are old, rusty, disused underground water pipes in towns across Nigeria. Okay, let me narrow it down to Ibadan where I currently reside and I’m conversant with: There are exposed, old, rusty, disused underground water pipes in many neighborhoods in Ibadan. They are a sad reminder of what we were, and pointer to what we have become. Those pipes are vivid pictures of the dereliction deterioration that have become our lot as a nation, our descent into decay.

Many parents of today can only explain how they fetched pipe borne water in their days as children and young adults. They now have to explain the old, exposed water pipes crisscrossing many parts of their neighbourhoods to their children. For those who have been to “water works” with their children, their stories have a tinge I can only imagine.

One of my sons recently prodded me to open up after his inquisition about unearthed pipes in our area of residence. His older siblings latched on to say that they too had been wondering what the pipes were meant for? I answered that they were water pipes. Puzzled, they stopped and in utter amazement asked: “water pipes?” I responded in the affirmative. “Do you mean people laid pipes for their boreholes?” I was stunned by this query.

That set me thinking about very many things our children might not get to know about how we lived before they were born. For those who know Ibadan, the Ring Road where my family and I live, and its environs are not rural. From Mile 110 to Challenge Roundabout is built up and modern, and so are all the adjoining streets and neighbourhoods on both sides from Akinyemi to Anfani Layout, etc. All these places in Ibadan South are not rural or new. They all once had public water supply.

For new areas, except there are electioneering campaigns, some form of tax or a health drive, governments ignore the fact that they exist. New neighbourhoods simply don’t have government presence. Maybe the only “government” that knows your community is “NEPA”, because they would come to give you bills for electricity you did not consume, after you had bought nearly all they require. There are no good roads; there are no public water pipes or public health institutions in new areas. There are even no police stations or posts in most new neighbourhoods.

But on hand was the immediate task of explaining to my inquisitive children what the exposed pipes were doing there. It was a painful story of Nigeria’s long departure from environmental and climate sanity. I told them that we fetched water from public water supply conveyed by those pipes. I also told them that we didn’t know boreholes, which often don’t last as long as the pictures attached to them by their donors. I explained that we just knew that there was water and we didn’t know its source. It is sad that only people over a certain age now remember defunct public water supply in Ibadan and in many cities in Nigeria.

I told them that I fetched public water at Ogbor Hill in Aba, Abia State and at Isiama Afaraukwu, near Golden Guinea Breweries in Umuahia. In Samonda, Ibadan, our fetching points were at Ile Pupa and at Ojude. For those who were well to do, water flowed in their homes. When scarcity set in, we went in search of water, a kind of expedition to places like the Dominican Community, Immanuel College of Theology, UI in Ibadan, and PWD, Brewery or Railway Quarters in Umuahia. A friend who lived at Elero Meta at Oke Ofa in Ibadan said public water supply gave the neighbourhood its name, translated literally to mean “three-headed tap”. St. Cyprian’s Catholic Church is still standing in that area but the three-headed tap is now a distant memory.

Now that we know where the water was coming from, why have we not sustained the efforts of the past and built on them? Exposed rotten pipes, which constitute barrier and danger to man and equipment, are reminders of the glorious past. These pipes even constitute extra burden for some of our unconscionable construction and maintenance works nowadays. In addition, they also leave us with questions on what we shall be in years to come with Nigeria’s ever expanding urban slums.

We have a Federal Ministry of Water Resources, it has 16 parastatal agencies under it, among which are 12 river basin authorities. It has a very beautifully-crafted mandate: “To develop and implement policies, projects and programmes that will enable sustainable access to safe and sufficient water to meet the social, cultural, environmental and economic development needs of all Nigerians.” The ministry also has a clear vision: “to provide sustainable access to safe and sufficient water resources to meet the cultural, social and economic development needs of all Nigerians, for all uses, in ways that contribute to enhancing public health, food security, poverty alleviation while maintaining the integrity of freshwater ecosystems of the nation.” The mission and vision are beautiful, but beyond the rhetoric, what’s the use of the ministry?

We also have ministry of water resources in the states. There are water corporations and there are paid workers in them. we no longer hear of water rate, but in my part of Ibadan, including Felele – Straight and Rab ends, I wouldn’t know if the government would be careless enough to make such demands. Unlike shameless “NEPA” or PHCN, “water corporations” know they have no reason to visit some communities for fees.

In the 2019 budget of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, they made water at IDP camps tagged “Special Intervention for North East and IDPs – Provision of Potable Water ” an item to cost N1billion. They also budgeted N1billion for “Partnership for Expanded Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (PEWASH). These are apart from N30million for clearing of 350 hectares of land in Lower Benue River Basin while “National ODF Campaign Fund” cost the ministry N339,696,229 .00 only. I cannot go into the budgets of state now. But your guess is as good as mine.

We need to revive our water infrastructure. Among other things, it would enhance healthy living among Nigerians and also remove us from the shameful position among the dirtiest when water, sanitation and health (WASH) issues are discussed. But with items as the ones above in the Federal Ministry of Water Resources budget, I don’t see us making any headway. Like the legendary management philosopher, Peter F. Drucker, noted, “there is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”

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