Listen to this articleENUGU, NIGERIA: As the break bell rang in Inyari Chiamaka’s primary school, she had a few minutes to talk about the recent changes in her community, Ibegwa-Aka in Enugu State, southeast Nigeria. “My village is now a town, we have water,” she joyfully shares, noting how the water situation had improved, and how she no longer had to struggle to access water like she used to
Chiamaka, 12, explains how she would have to walk for 45 minutes with a heavy wheelbarrow full of 25-litre water gallons to get water. She would have to make the trip two to three times a day, to collect enough water for her family.
According to research, women and girls around the world spend an estimated 200 million hours every day collecting water. This highlights the widespread nature of water scarcity, significantly impacting the lives of women and girls and leading to a range of negative outcomes such as decreased school attendance, lower community economic productivity, and increased rates of domestic violence.
“Even with that, the water was never enough,” Chiamaka says. For some families like Chiamaka’s, having to go a day without water was common. On days when the community’s single source of potable water did not have water, the family would save the limited water they had for essential activities like cooking, “we would go a day or two without bathing,” Chiamaka notes.
For families who could not afford wheelbarrows, the women would have to carry heavy water gallons on their heads, making the chore even more physically demanding.
The residents of Ibegwa-Aka, a community in Igbo-Eze local government area of Enugu, are among the 2.5 million people in the state who lack access to basic water services, accounting for almost half of the population. This has had severe consequences for the health and well-being of people, especially children under the age of five, who are at risk of diseases due to inadequate sanitation.
When the residents of Ibegwa-Aka emerged from the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, they were surprised to see that their community had undergone significant changes. There were water taps in every corner.
While the borehole and taps were initially a great success when it was established, providing much-needed water to the villagers, the lack of maintenance took its toll. Many of the taps have developed faults.
The elders of the community have noticed that many of the water taps are not being properly maintained, and some have stopped working altogether. Alhaji Sarki, a resident of Ibegwa-Aka told The SolutionsPaper that, “the people are not very careful about these taps, the taps are available everywhere but some of them are not working again.”
Bassey Bassey, a development expert, stressed the importance of community engagement and involvement in the maintenance of community development projects. He said that when everyone in the community feels a sense of ownership and responsibility, it helps to ensure that infrastructure and other developments are well cared for and maintained.
You Might want to read
No Place For Discrimination: These Traditional Leaders Are Standing Up For SGBV Survivors In Their Communities
Groups like Women in New Nigeria and Youth Empowerment Initiative (WINN), in collaboration with local leaders, are addressing stigma and providing support services for survivors of sexual and gender-based violencev(SGBV). These groups educate survivors on the violence they endured, provides them with a safe space to rest and engages them in the community to fight feelings of isolation SGBV survivors often face.Read More
How water came to Ibegwa-Aka
The traditional ruler of Ibegwa-Aka, Igwe Chukwudebelu II, explained that the initial sponsor of the project– who wants to remain anonymous– had asked him in which areas the community needed development the most, “he came to me and asked what we would want him to build for the community and where should he build them,” Igwe Chukwudebelu said.
Before identifying priority areas for development, the traditional ruler consulted with his cabinet members, who represented different districts of the community. The cabinet members gathered feedback from the community members to determine their most pressing needs and the best locations for the projects.
In addition to gathering feedback from the community members, the cabinet members also consulted with the women and youths in their districts to ensure that their voices were heard. This process allowed the women and youths to have a direct impact on the development of their community, and to feel a sense of ownership over the process.
Once the community members in each district had reached a consensus on their infrastructural priorities, the cabinet members met with the traditional ruler at the palace to share this information. The traditional ruler then passed this information onto the sponsor, who made the final decisions about what projects to support and how to proceed.
“The transformation of our community is obvious,” Chukwuebuka Eze told The SolutionsPaper. “Anyone who knows the Ibegwa-Aka community before now will scream if they see it. For the women and children, what they enjoy most is the water because usually they are the ones who go to the borehole to fetch the water for cooking and other home activities.”
Need for Maintenance
Despite the impact of the water infrastructure, some of the water points are in need of repair. While there is still running water in some areas, others are not functioning properly. The elders of Ibegwa-Aka say that the community must take responsibility for the maintenance of the new infrastructure, suggesting that the community must choose whether to preserve the development or allow it to fall into disrepair, which would mean returning to the old, difficult ways of life.
Bassey, the development expert, suggests a more strategic approach to the maintenance of the infrastructure. “Community projects can be sustained through community involvement and impact,” he says, recommending that the community elders form a team of dedicated individuals who will be bound by a charter to maintain the development.
The charter would ensure that the team has a clear mandate and is accountable to the community for the upkeep of the infrastructure. Bassey believes that this approach would promote community involvement and ensure the sustainability of the development.
Bassey suggests that when water taps need repair, the community members should meet with the ruler and other stakeholders to organise a fundraising effort. The funds collected would be used to fix the broken taps. This would help to prevent future problems and keep the taps sustained for a long time.
He also told The SolutionsPaper that the community can monetize the water at a subsidised rate, with the proceeds used to fund future repairs and maintenance. A team would be in charge of managing the funds and ensuring that the taps are in good working order.
A similar project in Northwest Nigeria employed the same approach to achieve sustainability for its water project. The project involved members of the community as diggers and supervisors as well as established a reporting line through the community leaders to effect repairs and maintenance.
Editors’ Credit
Lead Editor: Zubaida Baba Ibrahim
Chidera Eze is a freelance journalist with bias for solutions journalism, a blockchain content writer and a public relations student.