As Dry Season Sets In, Kaduna Residents Face Looming Water Crisis

As the rainy season gives way to the dry season, difficult times are looming for millions of residents of Kaduna State, particularly those who depend on wells for their daily water needs.

With the rains usually stopping around early October, water levels in household wells are already declining, raising fears that many could dry up completely before the end of the month, leaving residents scrambling for alternative sources of the most basic need after oxygen.

Findings by this correspondent revealed that the situation is compounded by the unreliable public water supply, despite the Kaduna State Government’s early 2025 initiative to replace ageing galvanised pipes with newer fibre pipes in selected places for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH).

The exercise had raised hopes among residents of communities such as Angwan Baro, Angwan Pama, Sabo and Television, who anticipated improved access to potable water.

However, nearly two years after the intervention began, those expectations appear to be fading, as many of the affected communities are still grappling with dry taps.

Even residents of areas that previously enjoyed relatively steady, though limited, water supply are increasingly turning to alternative sources to meet their domestic needs.

Consequently, more households are sinking boreholes to escape the persistent shortage.

“This has been our situation for a long time. Women, men and children are out in the morning in search of water.

“For some it is an everyday thing – both morning and evening,” a resident of Mission Road, Angwan Baro, said in confidence.

However, geoscientists have raised concerns about the potential environmental consequences of indiscriminate borehole drilling, particularly where groundwater extraction is poorly regulated.

The burden of the shortage falls heavily on women and children, many of whom spend considerable time searching for water every day. While women struggle to balance their businesses and domestic responsibilities, schoolchildren risk arriving late for classes after spending part of the morning fetching water.

In several neighbourhoods, residents depend on households with functioning boreholes, often having to queue for water or negotiate access.

The situation becomes more difficult whenever the electricity supply is interrupted, as some borehole owners are unable to pump water without power or alternative energy sources, thereby pushing residents to source water across highways.

Efforts to hear directly from the Kaduna State Water Corporation were unsuccessful as of the time of filing this report.

But an unofficial source in the Corporation, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak publicly, attributed the corporation’s challenges partly to the shortage of water-treatment chemicals and ageing pumping equipment.

According to the source, the corporation is arranging to acquire new pumping machines from China to address operational difficulties affecting water production and distribution.

“You know, this equipment that is not readily available in the market that you can just go and buy, they have to be built to specifications,” the source said.

The source added that the corporation’s leadership had travelled to China a few months earlier to inspect progress on the equipment’s production.

“I learnt reliably that the leadership of the corporation were in China a few months ago to inspect the work done so far on the production of this equipment,” the source added.

Appealing to residents to exercise patience, the source said the corporation’s staff were also affected by the unreliable water supply.

“So I want to appeal to our people to be patient with the corporation. You know, we are not happy either that we have not been sharing water bills with customers.

“Again, some of us who are staff are not having water, too. So I hope things get better as soon as possible,” the source prayed.