Residents of Bauchi communities recount water crises ordeal as  Ambassador Tuggar intervenes

From Paul Orude Bauchi

If water is essential to every living thing, then one can only imagine being without it for a long time.

This has been lot of some communities in Gamawa Local Government Area of Bauchi State who lack portable water to make life worth living.

For decades, many residents of these communities, located in the Sahel area, known for long months of dryness  and heat for most of the year, went through what is akin to hell.

A resident of Kari Kachaf, Yau Mohammed, said, they had suffered for many years and had to go to other communities in search of water, even to the point of drinking with animals from same source.

“We used to trek up to 10 kilometres to search for water from Karin Kachal,” he said.

“The wells in our communities are too deep and many of us go through great difficulties to fetch water from them.

“We really suffered for years because we spent almost the entire day in search of water”

Halima Adamu, a housewife recounted that she and her children wasted valuable time to search for water for their domestic needs.

Adamu said her children often skipped school because they had to go look for water saying it was a huge challenge that affected the hygiene and sanitation needs of the family.

Yau Mohammed and Hauwa  Adamu are  elated with the  newly installed borehole in their community saying it would ease their sufferings.

There excitement and joy among these residents of Kari Kachaf and Garin Makua communities in Gamawa Local Government is best understood by them.

They went through decades of suffering, not even the government felt the need to come in 

They  had wallow in this condition until  Nigerian ambassador and Diplomat, Yusuf Miatama Tuggar  stepped in and  donated water boreholes to them.

Their joy know no bounds as they revel in their new found life.

Kari Kachaf and Garin Makau communities, with total populations of 1750 adults and 2850 children and 1600 adults and 2780 children respectively.

For years they had suffered from lack of portable water but now the suffering is over..

Bulama Abdullahi, the head of Karin Kachal community expressed gratitude to Ambassador Tuggar for the gesture saying that has solved a major problem in the community.

Tuggar, who is the current Nigeria ambassador to Germany, also donated food items to women and children in the two communities to cushion the effects of poverty on residents.

Speaking shortly after he commissioned the boreholes and donated the foot items on Thursday, Tuggar explained that the gesture was to ameliorate the suffering of the beneficiary communities.

He lamented that several communities in the country lacked access to drinking water.

The ambassador who was member of the House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011 representing Gamawa, argued that lack of autonomy of the Local Government as a Third Tier of government has compounded the problems of many rural communities.

Tuggar, who has twice run for Governor of Bauchi State, observed that council chairmen and local government administrators were no longer answerable to the people of the grassroots but to governors who appoint them

The local Government administrators can do whatever they wish and not the wish to the people of the grassroots

“The administrators cannot challenge the governor of the state nor present and address the challenes affecting communities in order to address them

There is excitement and joy in as Ambassador Yusuf Maitama Tuggar on Thursday commissioned boreholes to ease the water needs of residents.