By; JACOB ONJEWU DICKSON
In an effort to curtail the challenges of water scarcity faced by residents of Damaturu the Yobe State capital, Governor Mai Mala Buni has directed the State Ministry of Water Resources to supply free diesel to some selected private boreholes weekly.
Supervising the distribution on Monday, the General Manager of the State Water Corporation, Engineer Mahdi Zarma explained that the effort is to cut down cost of the water trucks for the general public.
“Government has recently increased the supply of diesel from 40,000 litres to 60,000 litres to over 100 government boreholes in Damaturu, but we came to realize that some areas that are overpopulated still have the challenges of getting water at a subsidized rate from the water vendors”.
“We are giving 10 litres of diesel each to some selected private boreholes in Damaturu the state capital to cushion the sufferings of the buyers. The borehole operators charges N300.00 per truck thereby forcing the water vendors to sale the truck at about N1,000 to residents depending on the location, therefore with this development, we hope they will reduce the cost for the general public or the buyers” he said.
Adamu Abubakar, a private borehole operator and Babagana Ali a resident of Nasarawa community in the state capital; thanked the government for cushioning the sufferings of the people during the hot season.
It would be recalled, the suspected Boko Haram insurgents vandalized poles number 377 and 378 of the Nigeria Transmission Company (TCN) in the last eight weeks thereby causing epileptic power supply to the state capital, as most government boreholes depend on electricity for source of energy.
With the efforts put in place by the government, the residents look forward to when the electricity supply will fully be restored.
