No fewer than 300 communities in Tafawa Balewa Local Government Council of Bauchi State are suffering from non-availability of safe drinking water, a development that has endangered the lives of the inhabitants of the areas.

It was reported that 100 villages in the council area have so far benefited from a rehabilitation of broken down boreholes, courtesy of the intervention of the African Development Bank (ADB) project.

The council has therefore cried out calling for urgent intervention to save the communities considering that recently, there was a reported outbreak of Lassa fever in the area.

This was disclosed at a stakeholders forum held at Bununu, headquarters of Tafawa Balewa LGA which was Organised by an NGO known as Women Development Association for self-Sustenance (WODASS) in partnership with WaterAid Nigeria.

The Council’s WASH Coordinator, Malam Garba Yau Jambil, who gave the revelation, said that of the 775 villages in the local government, 300 still source water from wells and streams that are unsafe for human consumption, considering the threat of communicable diseases which could pose danger to human lives.

In his remarks, the representative of the traditional leaders in the area, Malam Ibrahim Unar, said that the Hygiene Behaviour Change (HBC) awareness campaign has impacted positively as community members have now realised the danger posed to human health by open defecation.

He said that various families have Embarked on Construction of toilets within households thereby discouraging open defecation.

Malam Ibrahim Umar warned that any household head that fails to abide by the directive to construct toilets would be sanctioned.

He pointed out that already, some traditional leaders in Tafawa Balewa LGA are now on suspension for failure to enforce the directive within their area of jurisdiction.

Also speaking, the programme manager of WODASS, organisers of the stakeholders forum, Mr Ezekiel N. Sukumun, appealed to community members in Tafawa Balewa LGA to cultivate the idea of presenting community needs of the people instead of their personal requests arguing that this remained the best option for them to attract genuine assistance from elected representatives. (Daily Independent)

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