Tucked away in the GUI Ward of Abuja Municipal, the community of Dayisna is just an hour from the Federal Capital, but it feels centuries behind. Here, over 5,000 Nigerians live without access to clean water, forgotten by a government they vote for every election, MonitNG, a public accountability organization has exposed.
Their only source of water? A stream polluted by roaming cattle, urine, dung, and all.
“This water is not good,” one elderly woman told us, cradling a jerrycan. “But we have no choice. The cows drink from it. We drink from it too.”
Let that sink in: In 2024, Nigeria’s capital city has communities where children bathe, cook, and drink from the same dirty water as livestock. No borehole. No pipeline. No help.
Yet the federal budget tells a different story:
₦8.6 billion allocated for water in 2023
₦9 billion in 2024
₦50 billion approved for 2025
So where is the water? Where are the results?
This is not just a development failure, it’s a moral failure.
“We vote, but we don’t have anything to show for it,” residents say.
It’s a cry that echoes across forgotten communities in Nigeria.