Salihu came pushing with five yellow kegs of water and five long paint rubbers on a long truck with Mama Sadia behind him as they trot to a borehole who sell water.
Salihu who looks small and looks around nine years old to ten years is an Almajiri who uses his spare time to help residents around Nkangbe in Bosso local government area of Niger state to fetch water and be paid for it.
The residents of Nkangbe now prefer to use the Almajiris for their water needs instead of buying water from water vendors popularly called Mai Ruwa.
Mama Sadia said that the Almajiris are much a much cheaper option than the Mai Ruwas.
“For the Almajiris, what you do is give them a stipend and pay for the water that is brought. For each rubber, I pay between N10 or N15 depending on its size, so in filling all the basins, I spend no more than N300 and I pay the Almajiris at most N100 to push my truck to and from the borehole to my house.
“But if I call these Mai Ruwas, they will tell me N400 for ten jerricans which will not even fill half of my basins at home. So it is more economical to use them than to buy from the Mai Ruwa”, she stated.
In Kpakungun, Fatima Aliyu tries to wake up as early as 5 am to queue in the nearby borehole that sells water for residents but before she gets there, she meets crowd of people who are there to also buy water.
“It is not easy especially these few days that the light is not stable. The owners of the boreholes have decided not to use fuel to pump water if there is no light because of the increase in fuel price.”
They said that no one would want to buy a bucket N25 to N30 instead of N10 to N15 which it is being sold now, so they cannot be selling at a loss.
“These days, we have suffered a lot. There is no light and there is no water. What have we done to suffer this? Even Mai Ruwa now, to see them is difficult and if you get them, the price they call for you eh! You will be scared”, she said.
Water Vendors increase their prices
A truck of water from Mai Ruwa which sells for N200 to N300 for 10 jerricans now sell for N400 to N500.
ASHENEWS learned that in some areas, some of the water vendors have decided that a truck of N600 to N800 depending on the location due to what they term the stress they go through in getting water.
“We go push the water from very far place wey we go buy am. We go pay for truck, we go pay for the jerricans because we no come from here, so me, I no get truck and jerricans. I rent am, we need to pay the owner.
” I dey pay daily but some people dey pay weekly. Then we go chop too and things don cost. No be our fault say we increase the money, na the way wey things be na I’m make us increase am”, one of the Mai Ruwa in Kpakungun who calls himself Bala told ASHENEWS.
The owners of boreholes in Nkangbe have also held meetings and have decided to up the prices sold to the water vendors from N70 per truck of 10 gallons to N100.
They explained that the increase in electricity and cost of materials used in maintaining the boreholes gave rise to the increase.
“We sell N100 for the Mai Ruwas while for the residents, we sell the water between N10 to N30 depending on the size of the bucket or basin they bring.
“AEDC have increased electricity billings and most times what you pay the previous month is not what you pay in the new month. And we dare not use fuel, how much are we going to sell the water”, one of the borehole owners, Hassana Abubakar said.
Frustrated residents have taken to social media to call on the state government to address the water scarcity issue.
One of the residents called Ismail wrote, “Wahala dey oooo. They will buy the truck of water at N100, and now resell it at N500. Dollars enter everything, Dollars trading nation. May God Almighty deliver Nigeria.”
Another resident, Mohammed wrote, “Till today, Niger state government cannot solve the problem of water in the state capital and fasting is approaching. Governor, help the masses. We face a lot problems, no money, no light, to feed the family is problem in our society”.
Another resident named Christaina said, “We used to trek miles away from home to fetch water before. It was unknowingly helping our system then to destroy excessive accumulation of diseases. Nothing spoil, we will start it again”.
The residents have appealed to the Niger state Governor to address the scarcity of water.
