Ibwa community is a rural community about 9 kilometres from Gwagwalada Area council FCT Abuja. With a population size of about 8,500, including women and children, they only have one motorised borehole that serves the whole community.
On the 1st June, 2019, Our team embarked on a community outreach to get the full details of the water challenges facing the people of Ibwa community in Gwagwalada LGA, Abuja. on reaching there we were welcomed by the host of community members, Led by the village head Abubakar Sulieman, we were then ushered into his house where representatives of different households where there present for the meeting.
According to Abubakar Suleiman (village head), the community has five boreholes, but only one (constructed by and NGO) is functioning, for them they value that one as though it were gold. Occasionally, that one gets bad and the community members have to contribute money to fix it.
They also have a stream that is very accessible to the community, it is an easy source of water if you don’t want to wait in the long queue to get a bucket of water to take your bath or wash your clothes or dirty plates and other kitchen utensils.
Every morning, as early as 4:30 am, while we go to the farm, Our women and children wake up and go to queue to fetch water from the motorised borehole before they come to do the house chores and then the children go to school.
Our team took a tour round the village to get first hand information and corroborate what the village said, we saw several bad boreholes, then we went to the Stream where we saw women and children washing clothes and kitchen utensils in the same water.
On 28 July 2010, through Resolution 64/292, the United Nations General Assembly explicitly recognized the human right to water and sanitation and acknowledged that clean drinking water and sanitation are essential to the realisation of all human rights.
We initiated a campaign #WaterIbwa to advocate for the adequate water supply in Ibwa Community. We call on Gwagwalada Local Government Area Council Chairman to perform his clarion call and fix the bad borehole that was constructed by his office in the community, and we also call on relevant stakeholders to join in this advocacy campaign.
FROM BAD TO WORST
On the 21st July 2019, We received a phone call from our contact in the community, Ibrahim, stating that, the last functioning borehole is now bad and they have been without water for the past 2weeks. Our team in Abuja had to go to the community to verify the story.
We collaboratively wrote a letter to the Office of the Chairman of Gwawalada LGA, demanding an immediate solution. Nigeria explicitly recognised the human right to water and sanitation and acknowledged that clean drinking water and sanitation are essential to the realisation of all human rights. the people of Ibwa are not excluded.