Residents of Dota -Kaida Tsoho community in Dobi ward at Gwagwalada Area Council of Abuja the Nigerian capital city rely solely on the dirty ponds as their only source of drinking water.
This is even as the residents are recounting how they have written several letters to the government (Area Council Authority) begging that they should provide them drinking water.
Community residents who spoke to MAWA FOUNDATION, say they drink from a dirty pond as their only source of water and the government has since refused to provide them with water despite their several appeals.
MAWA asked the residents if they had drawn government attention to the lack of water in their area, they say they had on many occasions written letters to the Gwagwalada Area Council Authority complaining about water. But rather than help them in providing water, the authority has since ignored them and is doing nothing to help out.
“We sent many letters about the lack of water to the Area Council Chairman through the community head, signed by other members of the community, and the government has done nothing to help us”, a community member told MAWA.
“We send our letters begging for water to Mr. Mustapha Danze, the Gwagwalada Council Chairman’s office”.
The locals told MAWA that apart from the lack of water in the community, it has no road and is hardly accessed during the rainy season because a huge part of it is in the riverine area.
A community champion, who does not want his name mentioned for fear of victimization by the politicians, told MAWA that before a Non-Governmental Organization built a school in the community a few months ago, children in the area learn sitting under the Tree, a development that forced the school to close by 10:am every day because the kids cannot learn under a scourging son.
“In all the time we took letters to the Council Authority, we met with Mustapha Danze, the Gwagwalada Council Chairman or the Council Secretary, they will just collect the letter and do nothing”
Because the council authority has since refused to provide water to the community, residents have resorted to drinking from a dirty pond which serves as their only source of water.
Worse still, the Gwagwalada Area Council gets allocation from the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) and also gets Internally Generated Revenues to carry out community projects.