A report by Stallion Times has highlighted the horrific effects of Nigeria’s current economic crisis coupled with water shortages in Lokoja, the capital city of Kogi State.

The failure of the Lokoja Greater Water Works to deliver water to Felele, Yamayama and the Government Reserved Area (GRA) has cost residents their overall wellbeing and lives.

Some victims of the water shortage situation have either contracted infectious diseases, been maimed or died as a result of picking communicable diseases from contaminated water supply.

In the affected areas in Lokoja towns, these victims of potable water shortages include children.

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Fatimah Inuwa, a 10-year-old primary school student, was hit by a car on one of her trips to fetch water along the busy Gaduma road. Little Inuwa lived on, but with a broken leg and bruises all over her body.

Inuwa was helping Hajia, her single mother, with getting water for their house when the accident happened.

“I don’t have a husband, neither do I have a paying job. My family and I survive through the proceeds of my small business,” Hajia told Stallion Times investigators.

“Buying water is very expensive, and when I close from the day’s sales, I and my children go across to fetch water, but see where that has led my daughter Fati.

“That fateful day, we were already taking the last trench of water home when from nowhere, that car just lifted my daughter with her bucket of water on her head. He sped off immediately but all thanks to those around who took her off the road, but then, she was covered in her own blood.

“She sustained injuries including a broken leg, and that leg, up till now, hasn’t properly healed. She has been going to an orthopedic clinic every Tuesday in FMC, and that is a lot of money, but I need to treat my child. I am indebted to many people and my business is also suffering; as you know, if she doesn’t go to the clinic, the leg will never be useful anymore. I am appealing to the state government to please look into this issue of water scarcity and release water for us. It’s becoming a big nightmare for us.”

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Johnson Amos, another parent who was a Felele resident, had to go through a worse ordeal.

Moses, Amos’ seven-year-old son, died after a long and exhausting battle to keep him alive as he suffered from a deadly waterborne disease.

“Water scarcity in Lokoja town has not only made me financially broke, but it has also cost me my only son,” Amos said.

“The government and the State Ministry of Water Resources made our lives miserable. No water, and no alternative. We only buy water from water vendors who we don’t even know where they get their supply from.

Narrating how Moses died, Amos revealed the weeks of attention he and his wife gave to their ailing son.

Their quest to save Moses took them from Lokoja in Kogi State to Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.

“Moses Amos was the only male child I had. He started complaining of stomach pain and this pain lasted for a number of months. At a point, the chemist I went to suggested we deworm him and we did but the ache persisted,” Amos explained.

“My boy could no longer eat, he became a shadow of himself and it was at that point we took him to the Kogi State Specialist Hospital, Lokoja, where we were referred to the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada.

“We were told he had untreated typhoid which had perforated his intestines. We spent over three hundred thousand (N300,000) for surgery and even more for bed space, treatment and dressing of the wound. There was no accommodation for us, so we had to be lodged in a hotel close to the hospital in order to be close to Moses.

“His treatment drained our resources. I sell second-hand electrical appliances and my wife is a tailor. When we could no longer afford the bills at the hospital and the hotel, we asked that we be discharged, and that was how we came back home with our son.

“At first, he showed signs of improvement, but that was short-lived as he died after four days of being discharged.”

Abigail Omale, a resident of GRA in Lokoja town, found out that her ward had been manipulated and sexually violated by the gateman at her neighbour’s house. The gateman raped Enechojon, Omale’s 15-year-old ward, before letting her fetch water from the compound several times.

The rapist gateman eventually impregnated Echenojon and infected her with a yeast infection. All this happened because she wanted to fetch water from her neighbour’s residence in the midst of water scarcity.

“In February 2023, I noticed my daughter’s sluggishness. She rejects food and becomes frail,” Omale told Stallion Times investigators.

“One day, she fainted, I rushed her to the hospital; the doctor disclosed that she was 3 months pregnant. It was at this point she narrated what had been happening to her each time I sent her to fetch water from the neighbours.

“Now, she is out of school. We managed to feed her before because I am a local government worker and you know that local government workers in Kogi State are paid percentage salaries and the payment is not every month.

“I managed to register for antenatal, we need to get baby essentials, prepare for delivery, and even get her routine drugs. What can I do other than to pray for the governor, His Excellency, Alhaji Yahaya Bello to help us and find a solution to our suffering due to the scarcity of potable drinking water?”

Omale said that the rapist made no contribution to support Echenojon. There were no indications that he would face the law for statutory rape.

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Abdulsalam Sagir, the general manager at Kogi State Water Board, could not recall details of the last allocations to the water board.

Blaming the 2022 floods and making promises that were not time-bound, Sagir said that water restoration works in the area were at 93 percent completion.

“Is it not who trusts himself that would trust others! There hasn’t been anything like water treatment in a long while, I must confess, that is why you see most times that there’s coloration of water supply,” Sagir claimed.

“The level of work done for water restoration is 93 percent and in no distant time, water supply shall be restored in every house in Lokoja town.

“There is currently a ton of work being done to make sure that water is restored as promised by the government.

“The electrical levels and control panels have been raised to a safe level. He stressed that they were also planning to make the drain airtight to avert harsh consequences in case of future occurrences.”

Philip Olawale, the Kogi State Ministry of Water Resources acting permanent secretary, also blamed the 2022 floods for negatively impacting Lokoja Greater Water Works machinery. According to Olawale, the repair work at the water works had reached almost 90% percent completion.

Contrary to Sagir’s promises and hopeful prognosis, a worker at the Kogi State Water Board confided in the investigators and told them that repair works had lingered for long.

“This work has lingered, and it’s because it is not a priority for the government. If it was, and necessary provision was made, we should have been through with repairs and water should have been flowing in everyone’s house,” the engineer, who wanted to remain anonymous, told investigators.

“Monies were claimed to have been released, but we didn’t get any of it, and that is why the work seems slow.

“We were discreetly informed that about N300,000,000 was on record to have been released as money for repairs of the machines damaged by flood by the state government which was termed out-of-pocket expenses, but what was awarded was N1,000,000 in March 2023.”

Stallion Times investigators saw listed N148,897,334 as the amount of money released to Kogi State’s water ministry.

The investigators saw that N9,811,929 was approved in 2021, 84,740,886 in 2022 and N54,344,519 was approved in 2023 from the budget documents found on the internet.

FIJ also found that there had been multimillion-naira projects in Kogi State’s Ministry of Water, but these projects were not located in Lokoja.

The state government had N5 million, N50 million, N150 million and N20 million allocated to borehole water reticulation, erosion control and dam constructions in Ijumu, Adavi and Olamaboro local government areas.

Investigators found a new 150KVA transformer installed at the Greater Water Plant in Ganaja. However, the transformer, which would be able to release 600 million litres of water per day, was not powered.

Sagir said that the 2022 flood submerged the armored cables that should power the water pumps. These cables had failed an insulation resistance test and were affected by excessive dampness.

According to Sagir, a letter has been sent to the Kogi State Government to draw attention to the affected armoured cables.

The submerged armoured cables and the configuration of some encrypted panels must be fixed before the supply of potable drinking water to residents of Lokoja can become a reality.

Stallion Times produced the report with support from the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) under the Collaborative Media Engagement for Development Inclusivity and Accountability project (CMEDIA) funded by the MacArthur Foundation.