FCT Fails To Repair Damaged Pipes As Kado Estate Residents Spend N70,000 Weekly On Water – The Whistler Newspaper

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Residents of Kado settlements and Kado Kuchi community in Abuja have been suffering from water shortages since June after a key pipeline supplying water to the area was damaged.

Bode Adejumo, a facility manager at Lakeview Homes Estate, said THE WHISTLER that the pipeline is still not repaired despite repeated appeals to the Federal Capital Territory Water Board (FCTWB) and the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), forcing residents to spend thousands of naira on water tankers.

Describing the ordeal that residents have been subjected to for over three months, Adejumo said: “Those who know Kado Estate will know that the affected areas are Next Cash and Carry, NAF Conference Centre, Custom Quarters, Navy Quarters, Lakeview Homes Phase II, Laton Ground, down to the Mobile side and Kado Kuchi community.”

According to Adejumo, the affected communities were previously supplied with water by the FCT Water Board, with residents regularly paying substantial amounts towards the water bill.

He further explained that efforts to resolve the issue included several visits to the FCT Water Board and the FCDA.

However, both authorities stated that they had no influence due to the technical complexity of the repair.

He said: “We have an FCT water board that supplies water to the area and we have been paying our bills. They bring bills to different settlements every month.

“In my housing estate, we sometimes pay two or a million naira a month. I don't know what other people pay.
Since June, a very large pipe that continuously supplies us with water has broken.

“To date, the problem has not been resolved. We spoke to them at the District Water Board office and they referred us to the head office in Area 3. We went there and they said that it was beyond their power and that the FCDA will do it because of the technical complexity involved.

“We went to the FCDA and were told that the repair had been approved and they would come to the site. These are the stories we heard. At some point, FCDA officials told us to repair it ourselves as a community service.

“We are asking them how we are going to do this as a community. You stopped people from drilling boreholes in Abuja, you said it was against the AEPB law.

“The only source of water supply provided to us in the FCT is the one that collects rent and property taxes from the citizens and they are unable to repair a broken pipe that supplies water to this neighbourhood.

“Despite the fact that they are losing revenue, they have not come to fix the problem to date. Before that, for about two weeks, the water was running unused until a water board official came and shut it off.”

Adejumo explained that the cost of purchasing water from water company trucks represents a significant financial burden on the population.

He further said: “Now we have bought water from the same water board where the trucks come from. We said it seems that the owners of these water board trucks are also FCT officials and they are using us to make money because each truck is sold for 35,000 to 38,000 naira.”

“In my settlement alone, there are 148 houses. Each house has to buy water because we cannot deduct it from the service charge. If you have two tanks, they can be full and in the next three to four days the water will be used up.

“If you extrapolate the cost of each household buying water twice a week, you can imagine how many thousands of naira we spend on it.

“Those who have the small 1000 litres buy them for 10,000 naira and that doesn't last them more than two days. What kind of suffering is that?”

The facility manager of Lakeview Homes said the situation had worsened and housekeepers were forced to roam the area with jerry cans and buckets in search of water.

Residents who cannot afford the expensive tankers are left without a reliable source of water, despite bills for services they no longer receive.

He noted: “Recently, the FCT Rent Tax Authority terrorised us in the settlement with reminders that they would use the funds they collected to repair roads and water. They asked us to pay for water that we never used.”

“This is our dilemma and we have tried our best to see if it can be fixed. At some point we decided to fix it ourselves. They told us that something like this happened in Karu and it took them up to eight months to fix it.

“So we suspect that if the community decides to repair it and the government provides money for it, they could divide the money among themselves and start collecting bills from us again.”

Letters written by residents of Kado and validated by the FCT Water Board.