Every day, Hajiya Amina and her children had to walk for 40 minutes from Bashuri to Jidawa to get water for their daily needs.
She would make this trip as many times as possible to get the required quantity of water for the family.
Bashuri village, located in Dutse local government of Jigawa state had no good source of water. The closest water supply was located in Jidawa village, 3.3km from Bashuri.
The 3km journey had become a daily routine for not just her, but other villagers in Bashuri village. They have no option as water remains a daily necessity for survival.
However, they became a beneficiary, by chance, of the Small Towns Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (STOWA) initiative of the state government to build solar-powered boreholes.
This gave residents access to safe clean water within their village and has brought tremendous relief to the people.
The Bashuri Water Project
The Jigawa state government had awarded the construction and provision of one solar-powered water supply scheme at Dadin Duniya in Dutse in 2021. The N7.28 million project was awarded to Pullad Global Consultants Nigeria Ltd.
The project is part of the Small Towns Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (STOWA) initiative with the aim of improving water access in the state.
Though the project was initially to be executed at a location in Dadin Duniya village in Dutse, it was however moved to Bushuri due to the unavailability of water in the ground at Dadin Duniya.
The STOWA project executed by the administration has seen improvement in access to water in the state. The state was ranked in the 80 – 90 percentile in the 2018 NDHS survey.
At least 83.1% of the people in the state have access to clean drinking water with an 83.2% improvement in the source of drinking water. This is a far cry from neighbouring states with less than 65% of their population having access to clean drinking water.
Malam Sani Bashuri, a resident in the village couldn’t hide his joy as he expressed his gratitude to the government. He recounted again the challenges they usually encountered and how this project has relieved them of the stress.
‘We have just two boreholes around us before. In addition to the distance we go to get water, there are long queues at these boreholes. Before we get a single gallon of water, we spent so much time. We repeat the same process and spend much time if we need more water’, said an excited Sani.
For Hajiya Amina and Malam Sani, the presence of the solar borehole in the community has solved a major problem for them and their community, access to water.