The first challenge Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah, moved to solve on assumption of office on May 29, last year, was the water problem in the state. The reasons are not far-fetched; during his election campaigns, he had promised residents that he would make portable water available at every household within 180 days in office.

The second was based on his conviction that, “solving Enugu’s water problem is fundamental to achieving the objectives of his administration’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from the $4.4 billion to $30 billion within the next four to eight years.”

He had, therefore, moved with every fiber in him to keep to the promise. On Saturday, November 25, 2023, exactly 180 days after he assumed office, Mbah inaugurated multimillion naira newly reconstructed ultramodern water scheme at Ninth mile corner amid cheers from residents.

He had told the crowd that gathered at the commissioning that the facility would deliver 70 million litres of potable water to the people daily.

While noting that this is the first phase at ending the perennial problem, Mbah said,“in a few weeks, we will also be inaugurating new pumps in Oji Water Scheme to enable us to deliver another 50 million litres of water every day.

“This will give us a total daily delivery of 120 million litres in Enugu, about twice the daily demand of Enugu urban. We are currently supplying water at appreciable pressures to Enugu municipality and I can state here and now that pipe-borne water is here to stay.”

Tracing the origin of this challenge in the state, the governor stated that it was massive and had defiled almost every since effort of those who came before him.

“Whereas we need over 65 million litres of water to serve Enugu City with its growing population, the highest volume that had ever been produced was 20 million litres, an optimum achieved many years ago; and the state could only muster 2 million to about 3 million liters occasionally as of May 29, 2023. But today, we have solved the challenge of water production that had become an ugly, recurring decimal, in the past few months,” he said.

He had further attributed the problems to poor maintenance and mismanagement of infrastructures and facilities; insecurity and vandalisation of pipeline networks and building facilities; damaged and broken pipes and valves on water line; unregulated accessibility to the premises and rainy season causing erosion to pipelines.

To achieve the new water facility, Mbah said 16 new boreholes with high horsepower pumps were drilled; replacement of eight actively installed solar powered pumps; replacing internal underground piping connections from borehole, installation of independent gas power plant station and reconnecting 600mm steel line to the 900 mm waterline passing the crash project.

Others were renovation of all existing facilities and infrastructures; changing incoming mainline valves and pipes; fixing the 20,000 cubic meter pressure tank, renovation and securing the two eater reservoirs.

Attempting to change the wide held notion that it is difficult to get water in Enugu owing to coal, Mbah said, “Enugu does not have any water availability problems,” stressing that based on the quantity of available water, “Enugu belongs to the wealthiest cities in Africa and should be renamed from City of Coal to City of Coal and Water.”

He said the target of his government is to secure the production and distribution of minimum of 70,000 cubic metres of portable water per day to the people of the state.

To ensure that the water gets to every household, Mbah had stated then that a contract for construction of 95 water galleries across the urban area had been awarded and charged water tanker drivers and vendors to look elsewhere to ply their trade or convert their trucks to other usage in the state.

However, even with these intervention efforts and assurances, accessing portable and affordable water in the state has continued to pose challenge to residents. Though there is an improvement in the distribution such that water flows from pipes to the taps of residents three or four times a week, it is still a far cry from the water need of the state.

As it is, construction of the 95 public tap galleries at different locations in the metropolis had long been concluded, but the few that started providing water were vandalised the moment water stopped flowing in them.

Except, in areas connected to the old water lines, new areas and several others with issues before now are yet to be connected to water supply, thus, potable water business still booms in the state without restraints with residents at the mercy of water tanker drivers and other water vendors.

In areas such as Achara Layout, Awkunanaw, Idaw River, Merry land, parts of trans-Ekulu, New artisan, Emene, residents claim they are yet to feel the impact of the intervention in the water sector by the state as their taps are still dry.

While many rely heavily on underground wells that dot the neighbourhood or patronise water vendors who fix their rates at will, vehicles and wheelbarrows fitted with jerry cans of various sizes still roam the streets in search of potable water.

Earlier in the month, some residents had bemoaned scarcity and rising cost of drinking water in the state, stressing the situation has been compounded by increase in price by tanker drivers and sachet water producers.

A report published by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on February 6, this year, had lamented that despite government’s promises, the water project was yet to reach most of the areas.

It had quoted an Awkunanaw resident, Simon Umeadi, as saying that a 500-gallon of water that was sold for N7000 last year has increased to N8000 and N9000.

It had also quoted Grace Ezeani, a resident of Achara Layout as saying that she used to fill her overhead water table every month “for N25,000 but now it costs N35,000.” There are many more.

On January 19, this year, there was anger in the state following the sack of 19 directors of the state Water Corporation by the government for allegedly not meeting the N100,000 weekly targets revenue generation from water consumers.

Though Governor Mbah had, following the public outcry that greeted the development, recalled the directors to work, what is not contestable is the fact that supply of water has remained irregular in the state.

Most government offices and officials heavily rely on water tankers for their daily supply of water. Hotels, companies, hospitals, churches, schools still run their own water trucks daily on the Ugwu Onyeama to Ninth Mile corner in Udi to patronise the various water boreholes that dot the area.

At a one day sensitisation and policy dialogue on Enugu State water sector law 2021 and water supply in Enugu last week, Commissioner for Water Resources, Felix Nnamani, had attributed the delay in water project and poor distribution to the ongoing road rehabilitation and maintenance on the water reticulation lines.

He explained that the government was currently changing old pipes as well as cleaning and refurbishing old reservoirs, adding that the replacement of old pipes was being done as the roads were being reconstructed.

“It will be wrong after asphalting the road and then, you will start cutting it to lay pipes and we don’t want that to arise considering the economic situation we found ourselves in globally.

“The government has also approved construction of new lines for water distribution from 9th mile to Enugu metropolis and the contract has since been awarded,” he said, reassuring that government was desirous of regular and steady water supply in the state.

While appealing for patience, he had regretted that efforts by the government to provide water were being sabotaged in some places by residents who destroy water facilities.

The Guardian gathered that there is equally a wrong narrative communicated in the state. There is an erroneous impression that water works built in the state could no longer supply potable water to the taps due to the topography and would always collapse no matter efforts invested in them. Thus, it is almost impossible to find a compound without an underground well in the state.

According to The Guardian checks, there are over four water schemes in the state including the Ajalli Owa Water Scheme in Ezeagu Council built over 40 years ago with an installed capacity of about 77 million litres; the Oji River Scheme built over 21 years ago with 50 million litres capacity; Nsukka Water Scheme of 19 million litres and the Ninth Mile Water Scheme, which is expected to generate over 70 million litres. The existence of these schemes has not solved the water challenge of the state as they had not worked to full capacity.

However, it has been one nightmare or the other. Recall that successive administrations have made “ending water crisis in Enugu” a singsong since 1999. While the Chimaroke Nnamani administration in an effort to put a permanent solution to the negative toga, attracted federal government’s assistance to set up the Oji River Scheme to complement Ajalli Owa, it, however, failed to reticulate the scheme.

The Sullivan Chime administration attempted to rehabilitate and reticulate supply to areas that never had water.

His intervention also stopped midway following the expiration of his tenure and disruptions in the contractual agreement, as allegations that he had concessioned one of his sons to manage water supply as a private enterprise in the state came up later.

The immediate past administration of Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, which vowed that the water crisis would end with his regime, especially when it secured a 50 million dollars loan purposely to address water challenge in the state from the French Development Bank could not muster enough political will to address the matter.

On several occasions, Ajalli Water Scheme failed after rehabilitation owing to obsolete equipment, a development that compounded the crisis, creating water scarcity frequently in the state. To ameliorate the situation, government had moved to the then abandoned Ninth Mile Water Scheme built by Jim Nwobodo and recovered eight boreholes, which reportedly collapsed weeks after owing to poor quality jobs.

The ugly narrative became the epicenter of campaigns by governorship candidates of the various political parties in the 2023 elections in the state. At every point, each of the candidates in the elections had proffered strategies on how to solve the problem permanently, if elected.

It was in the quest to win the heart of the people that Mbah promised the 180 days to restore water to the households; a promise that has not been fully realised.