By Abia Onyike
On October 26, 2024, the Sun Newspaper published a features article titled, “Cholera deaths: Endless Agony in Ebonyi Communities”, with a rider, “ how open defecation, lack of portable water, hospital, road, electricity, spread disease”. The write-up came in the wake of the recent cholera outbreaks in some states in Nigeria. The story may have been crafted to create awareness about the health challenges posed by lack of clean drinking water in Ebonyi State and how the situation may have resulted to cholera outbreaks in some communities during the August-September period of 2024.
This write-up will briefly look at the water sector management in the state and make some comments on the structure of the health care delivery system. These two areas are both intertwined and interrelated. Some of the communities affected by the cholera outbreak, according to the report included Okpuitumo in Abakaliki Local Government Area “where at least six lives were lost”. Other communities included Oferekpe in Izzi LGA where a woman died of the virus;
Ndiobokote, Ezza-Inyimegu in Izzi LGA and Ezillo community in Ishielu LGA where rural dwellers were said to be drinking untreated water from the ponds and yellowish river bodies. These were places where water shortage was acute and the people became desperate in their search for drinking water. The writer aptly captured the reaction of some citizens in the rural communities, who spoke about what they were passing through. For instance, the Vice President of Federated Ezillo General Assembly, Michael Okechi was reported to have said that: “We are drinking from this dirty river because we have no other water in the community.The only source of water is this Ebonyi River…Some people after fetching the river water, boil it before drinking while some don’t do so before drinking the water”.
Some other salient issues raised by the features article include the fact that water supply was disrupted in some parts of the state due to certain factors which the reporter partially articulated.
However, the features was a mere narrative of what the author claimed he saw on ground or what he was told by some people whom he spoke with on the situation. He made no effort to trace the history of water supply in Ebonyi State, with a view to establishing the major sources or causes of the problem. No mention was made about the period when a particular administration in the state, for eight years deliberately worked hard to subvert the water supply needs of the almost four million Ebonyi population. That was during the 8-year tenure of former governor, Chief David Umahi(2015-2023). The government operated a near zero policy on water supply to the people of the state. For instance, the administration decided to scrap the State Water Board and the Environmental Protection Agency. The state is yet to recover from that sadistic anti-people water policy.
The Water Board is a place where people are trained to produce, treat, supply and distribute water to members of the public. By abolishing the Water Board in 2015, the foundation was laid for the water crises we are facing in the state today. In order to seek a sustainable solution to the problem at hand and to avoid future occurrences, there is the need to understand “where the rain began to beat us”. Such a proper understanding will ultimately lead to sustainable solution to the problem.
Even though the present administration of Gov. Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru had commenced the process of restoring water supply in the state since he assumed office in May 2023, it will still take some time for the state to recover from the damages of the past.
In actual fact, according to health experts, the whole tragedy of occasional cholera outbreaks can be traced to lack of clean drinking water. Right from inception when the state was created in October 1, 1996, water supply was always seen as a priority by all the governments, including the military regimes of Commander Walter Aye Feghabor(1996-98) and Commissioner of Police Simeon Oduoye(1998-99). The Ezillo Water Scheme and Abakaliki Juju Hill Water Projects were regularly and routinely maintained to supply water to Abakaliki and the environs just as the Ogboro-Ehi water scheme in Afikpo supplied water at Afikpo, the second biggest town in the state.
This tradition continued and was sustained under the civilian governments of Dr. Sam Egwu(1999-2007) and Chief Martin Elechi(2007-2015). Infact, the emphasis on providing clean drinking water for Ebonyi citizens was a serious government undertaking because the state was notorious for the guinea-worm scourge which was successfully battled by local and international aid agencies until it was finally eradicated at the turn of the last century.
In order to expand the sources of water supply, the Elechi administration spent about #18 billion on water projects in the state. The citizens enjoyed pipe-borne water under Elechi just as they did under Egwu. Elechi built the mega water project at Oferekpe in Ikwo LGA to pipe water directly from the Cross River to service the 8 LGAs in Ebonyi North and Ebonyi Central Senatorial districts. He also commenced the construction of another water scheme at Ukawu in Onicha LGA to supply water from Ebonyi River to the 5 LGAs in Ebonyi South Senatorial district.
But the government of Umahi sent a terrible signal to experts in the water sector in the state. In 2015, some staff of the Water Board who had finalized arrangements to attend an International Water Conference in Barcelona, Spain, decided to drop because of the scrapping of the Water Board. The conference was a training programme on institutional strengthening and project-loan closure assessment. The Officer who was to lead the Ebonyi Team in the training programme, Emmanuel Oko(Director of Planning) stayed back because of the proscription of the Water Board. And the state lost out.
Secondly, the multi-billion Naira Oferekpe Water Scheme was abandoned without any serious justification. Umahi was Deputy Governor under Elechi and served as Chairman of the Executive Council Committee on the completion of the Oferekpe Water Project. Before Elechi left office in 2015, the Water Scheme had been successfully test-run with water pumped into the giant Water Reservoir near the new market along Abakaliki-Enugu Expressway. It was alleged in some quarters that there was a conspiracy to abandon the water project and there was semblance of truth in the allegation as the project was only revisited under the present government of Nwifuru which spent about #200 million to complete the water scheme.
The situation became rather funny during the COVID period when Umahi was busy setting up isolation centres and advising citizens to wash their hands regularly with running water even when no public water tap was functional under his government. Then a certain social critic wrote that “the building of the isolation centres was to facilitate the flow of money into private pockets instead of the flow of water for the good health of the citizenry”.
Water supply in Afikpo town and its environs was also discontinued abruptly within the same period under scrutiny but under previous administrations, Afikpo always had water supplied from the Ogboro-Ehi water scheme. Water supply in Afikpo was disrupted when Umahi embarked on the dualization of the Macgregor Hill-Unwana-Eke Market Junction road. The water pipes uprooted in the course of the road rehabilitation exercise were not replaced. The pipes were allegedly vandalized and that was how Afikpo water supply collapsed till date.
However, right now as I write, the good news is that Oferekpe Water scheme has been reactivated. It has commenced a second test-run and after that, the plant will start lifting water to Abakaliki, the state capital, all year round. The Independent Newspaper of November 21, 2024 reported that “the multi-billion Naira water scheme which was constructed by Chief Martin Elechi but was never put to use after its completion many years ago, has commenced operations”. The report further noted that “Elechi’s successor, David Umahi never looked the way of the water scheme throughout his 8-year tenure as Governor. But the incumbent Governor, Nwifuru has taken the bull by the horn by reviving the water scheme”.
Ebonyi State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Jude Okpor was quoted to have told journalists that “the Oferekpe Water Scheme will soon start supplying water to the state capital as all necessary works have been completed”. He confirmed that Gov Nwifuru intervened to stimulate the chemical outline which was not working and “that #200million was spent for the reactivation of the water scheme”.
The other related factor which may have influenced the outbreak and control of diseases in the rural communities is the inadequate primary and secondary health care delivery system in the state. The same neglect of the water sector was extended to the health sector in the state from 2015-2023. What was witnessed during the period was the structural renovation of the 14 general hospitals in the state. Some lives were lost because of ill-equipped hospitals, which looked beautiful outside but empty inside.
The health centres and general hospitals had no facilities and manpower to operate efficiently and service the health needs of people at the grassroots. It was unbelievable that the 14 general hospitals had only six medical doctors, two Pharmacists and five medical laboratory officers for the entire state. There were only 54 Nurses in the state Ministry of Health instead of the projected requirement of about 4000 Nurses and Midwives. The zero employment policy of the Umahi administration meant that no new employments were made in the state ministry of Health.
Given the scenerio painted above, no one should be surprised that Ebonyi State was vulnerable to certain health challenges until the recent efforts by Gov. Nwifuru to do the proper things. Since May 29, 2023, the health care delivery system has been revisited. Three medical Doctors, Pharmacists, Nurses, Radiographers and Medical Health Technologists have been employed and posted to each of the 14 General Hospitals in the state.
Each of the doctors is paid an additional #150,000 for overhead costs in addition to official vehicles procured for each if them. And since then, drugs have been supplied to take care of the health of the rural people. With this developments, the teaching hospitals in Abakaliki can now operate as referral hospitals, which they are. Lives can now be saved in the state to the glory of God.