By Muheeb Mashood
In the gripping tales of struggling to survive, students recounted how they were compelled to purchase sachet water as a result of inadequate flow of water, despite financial hardship in the country.
It was a Thursday evening around 8:00 pm, the atmosphere was busy as the environment of Jubril Aminu, one of the male hostels under the management of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, was crowded. Students were spotted carrying bags of sachet water, heading to their various hostels.
AKorede Sanni, a 100-level student of Biology, moved uneasily with a bag of sachet water towards his hostel. The frustration in his eyes showed that the young lad depicted someone who had undergone hellish. He bitterly bemoaned the instability of water supply in Jubril Aminu hostel since resumption of the second semester of the 2023 academic session.
Sanni was hampered and limited to do his daily routines, necessarily with water due to inadequate flow of water in the hostel. However, like many other students, he was forced to spend the last change that ought to survive him on buying sachets of water, in order to escape the hardship.
He regarded the student’s survival in Jubril Aminu Hostel as terrible, experiencing a lot of discomforts and inconveniences along the line. Unavailable power supply and lack of adequate flow of water; the two major necessities of life claimed the biggest headache of the residents.
“I may be provoked to get angry if I start to say something about the issue, I can end up crying because it’s like they disvalue us in this place. How come water will be available in some blocks while occupants from the other blocks will be running along their buckets to line up and fetch water?”
Sanni said that the occurrence is not strange to the hostel as the inhabitants experienced the same in the previous semester but water was usually restored without much delay. However, the sufferness is unbearably hitting the students during the ongoing academic campaign. He explained that there’s on time availability of water in the early weeks of the current semester but there’s a sudden change as students begin to resume in numbers.
To ameliorate the effect of the upsurge, he resorted to using sachet water, in order to satisfy his needs, whenever the water scarcity hits the dwellers. He explained that sachets of water are sold at the rate of N200 per bag, and sometimes, he uses four bags in a day, spending approximately N800.
“I cook from the sachets of water, to be able to eat before going to class in the morning. I bought this one tonight because I’m very sure the tap water will not be available at dawn. Thus, I will perform ablution from it, wash plates and do other things with it.”
“My phone stopped working effectively some days back. I won’t be able to read PDF materials on it any longer. I suppose to save the sum I spend on sachet water to buy handouts as a result of the phone’s failure.”
“Also, they’d advised me at home to ensure I manage the money they are able to send to me. Because the current recession in the country is affecting not only them but everyone.”
Mubarak Abdullahi, a 300-level student of Agriculture is another occupant of the hostel. Although, he prefers to wait until anytime that the water is pumped, yet he was pushed to the redline when the students failed to welcome water from the tap through the day. Spending the last change to buy half a bag of sachet water from the SUG, one of the vendors around the hostel, maintained by the Student’s Union, became his last option.
Mubarak narrated that lack of adequate water supply has become the major problem in the hostel after he resumed back to school. He said, some of the students were hampered to take their bath before setting out to class while others bought sachet water to bathe and cook before leaving the hostel in the morning.
“I don’t usually buy sachet water because I don’t have money to spend on it. Even now, I bought it because it’s compulsory for me, considering the absence of water in the hostel since morning.”
“Imagine spending the little money we have on buying sachets of water. Sincerely speaking, this thing affects our livelihood because it’s likened to as if we are living in hell. And I don’t know why these Hall Governors failed to address the issue with the school management. We hope and solicit the support of the school management to interfere in the matter.”1
Real income is still under pressure as inflation (25.8% as of August 2023) continues to rise and national minimum wage remains unchanged in the short-term. In addition, input costs (including the Y-o-Y increase of 216% in PMS from January to September) will continue to pass through to consumer prices further worsening the affordability of goods and services in the economy in the short to medium term. This was reported by the Nigeria Economic Outlook, showing how Nigerians are fighting the battle of inflation, causing financial hardship to the citizens.
Inadequate Water Supply Affects Muslim Worshippers
Muhammad Abdullahi, the third Imam of Jubril Aminu Mosque identified scantiness of the mosque during the congregational prayers, especially, Subr, Magreb and Isha as the major effect of water scarcity on the muslim students. Mallam Abdullahi noted that the mosque didn’t fill again, unlike what it had experienced before, owing to the intermittent water supply in the hostel during the ongoing semester.
He said that while many muslim students found it difficult to be in attendance during the Zubr (dawn) congregational prayer, others failed to bother to come. This is because the shop owners are always yet to open, even if the worshippers want to buy sachet water to perform ablution as they do sometimes. Losing multiple figures of Mahmum (congregation) as a result of inadequate flow of water in the hostel claimed to be the major concern of the Imam.
Mallam Muhammed said the extravagant usage of the water among the occupants is one of the main reasons that contributed to the water scarcity in the hostel. He remarked that some students come directly to perform ablution from the water tanks instead of using a kettle. A lot of water that is supposed to benefit them is always wasted during the process.
He added that there’s a reservoir that is meant to serve the muslim worshippers, whenever the issue arises. However, dwellers from different hostels depend on the reservoir to avoid the adversity of the trends.
“This water scarcity occurs most of the time. For example, there’s no water in the hostel when we observe Asr prayer, and there’s a presumption that the water will not be available even in the upcoming (Magreb Solat).”
“The intermittent water supply started when increasing numbers of students resumed back to the hostel. I mean the students that left the hostel to spend their break at home. As a result of this, the amount of students consuming water also increased and the water scarcity started.”
More Tales
Ayuba Mikhail Onilaru, a final year student of Literature-in-English revealed that he usually buys two bags of sachet water in a single day to pervert the effect of the water scarcity; cooking, drinking and bathing from it.
He stated that the ongoing semester is the worst he will experience in the school, due to lack of adequate flow of water in the hostel. He said, usually in the morning, water will not be available before the students go to class until the afternoon. And the water doesn’t last long before it finishes.
“We use sachet water to perform ablution during the dawn prayer. We enjoy water supply in the hostel for a few hours everyday. We balance the hardships of the available flow of water by using sachets of water to cook, drink and do some other things.”
“The remaining from the two bags I bought today is inside my locker. I will keep it because of tomorrow. “
In September 2023, The News Digest Press, published a report about the trend of water scarcity in the hostel, some weeks later after commencement of the current semester. In the story, students lamented inadequate water supply in contrast to how they enjoyed on time availability of water and stable power supply during the semester holiday.
In response, one of the hostel maintenance, Mallam Tukur Abubakar said that unstable power supply to be able to pump water is responsible for the intermittent flow of water in the hostel.