When the government of Malam Ibrahim Shekarau came on board in 2003, it inherited a water project started by the administration of Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. As a water engineer and one who worked with the Kano State Water Board, Kwankwaso made tackling perennial water problem in Kano his government's main priority. It was identified that the major reason why there was water problem in Kano was because the big pipes that were underground in the metropolis that were more than 70 years old actually got blocked. And consequently, the water could not be effectively distributed.
A lot of efforts and resources were put, however in 2003 the Kwankwaso led government was voted out of office by Kano people who were surprisingly not so much satisfied by the way the state was being governed.
The work had progressed quite far when Shekarau came, with the work having reached a stage where huge pipes were seen to be laid around Kano metropolis. Unfortunately, some few weeks after Shekarau was sworn in, his government announced the cancellation and ordered the immediate stoppage of the work. The government reasoned that the work was not planned properly and was hastily put together and as such it was bound to fail. They promised to come up with a 'better' planned blue-print on how the water problem was going to be tackled.
It took the government two years to come up with their 'better' planned blue-print. I have to regretfully admit that that was the last time water ran in many areas of Kano state-including my area. The government said it intended to tackle the problem from its roots by expanding the capacity of the Tamburawa Water Treatment Plant to augment the Challawa plant.
The contract was given at the initial stage at 6 billion Naira, even though it was subsequently jerked up according to some reports in the media to over 16 billion Naira.
More than six years now after work at the Tamburawa water plant started and more than two years after the Shekarau's government claimed it had completed the work and even inaugurated it, the water scarcity in Kano still persists. It would be an understatement to say the Kano people were better off before this work started. In many areas, the situation just got worse. One just need to observe the number of water vendors who roam the streets of Kano to realise that there is a serious water problem. The water vendors are now competing with okada riders in terms of their number on the streets of Kano. Some times one driving in a car has to give way for their convoy to pass especially on a narrow street inside the city.
People who can not afford to buy water from the vendors or those who are in those areas where it's difficult for the vendors to access with their barrows, have to travel as far as several kilometers to get water and sometimes stay awake during the night as long as early morning hours to be able to get water from bore holes as there would be less queue at that time. That is the sad reality of the situation.
In my area, even though we have at least 10 privately built bore holes, however, whenever we are lucky NEPA gave us electricity, all those bore holes would be filled up by children and adults alike trying to get water. It does not matter at what time of the day or the night the light is brought, let it be 3am, people will still come out in numbers and queue up to get water. Immediately the light goes off, the vendors would be trooping and of course people will buy as the bore holes are never enough and again, the electricity never stays long for people to be able to fetch enough.
Many excuses were given by the Shekarau's administration as to why Tamburawa plant was yet to solve water problem in Kano, but the most frequently said of all the reasons was that there was no enough power supply to Kano from NEPA to effectively be able to handle the heavy machines installed at the plant for pumping the water. I do not want to delve in to this issue as any person with an iota of sense in their head should know that this is just rubbish. One thing I would say though is we have never had a steady power supply in Kano for more than 15 years now, and it was only within the last six years the water problem really aggravated. And again, Challawa was pumping water even then.
The truth of the matter as many professionals and commentators remarked is, the water problem is not as conceived by the Shekarau's government. That even if we needed Tamburawa water plant, however we need those old pipes to be replaced more. This also became so apparent when the government inaugurated the plant and water was pumped which burst some of the old pipes as many were blocked and therefore water could not pass through.
This just highlighted once again, the one very cancerous culture that our leaders have. That is their inability by sheer arrogance to continue and complete any developmental project they inherited from their predecessors. They just don't have idea how costly that is, aside the stagnation of capital development, there is also a huge loss of public money whenever such of those projects are abandoned and more especially when they are later have to come and be done all over again.
Kano people have turned to the government of Kwankwaso who has started the project some ten years back. Can he right the wrong and continue from where the last government stopped or he will start all over again as is the culture? Only time can tell.
