Lagos residents lament water scarcity

Some parts of Lagos State are in dire straits with fears of an epidemic outbreak as some communities have been hit by water scarcity.

Residents of Ogudu are lamenting the scarcity of water in the area as the Lagos State Water Corporation had for more than three weeks stopped supplying water to Ogudu.

A resident of the area, Omoniyi Ojo, told The Guardian that for the three weeks of no water supply, the community has had to heavily rely on water vendors pushing carts, popularly known as Meruwas. “We rely so much on them. Yet the situation got worse last Saturday as the Meruwas themselves couldn’t get water to hawk.

“The price for a keg (25 litres) of water, which was before N100 for the 10 jerrycans in their cart suddenly rose to N50 for each keg. Shortly before the scarcity situation became severe, it rose again to N100 for a keg, which is N1,000 for a whole cart. Something that was going for N100 is now being searched for desperately even for N1,000.”

Another resident, who is a plumber, Isaac Akande, said he visited the water corporation office alongside other members of the community and the officials they met said they have no diesel to pump water.

“The issue is nobody is talking. As at this moment there is still no water except for places dependent on borehole and wells like River Valley and Morgan Estates. The others like Akiode, Budland Road, and Omole estate are without water. A few houses with wells have had to allow neighbours fetch from their wells.”

When contacted, an official of the state’s water corporation, who pleaded for anonymity, said they are aware of the situation. “The problem is that there is a major fault with their facility there as against what a resident said regarding not having diesel to pump water. We were there all through the weekend. Our men were at the site to rectify the fault.”