Scores of women from Kula, a coastal community in Akuku-Toru Local Council of Rivers State, have staged a peaceful protest to draw attention to their plight over lack of electricity and water supply in the community for more than two years.

The women, who protested to the Jetty and security checkpoints in the community carrying placards with various inscriptions, lamented that the protracted absence of electricity in the community has resulted in severe scarcity of water in the area.

They lamented that despite hosting critical national assets and three major oil companies, they still suffer from lack of basic amenities, neglect, and deprivation, saying the situation has brought untold hardship to the area, making life unbearable for the people.

The women said that lack of these basic amenities in the community had severely affected public health, the well-being of the populace, as well as their local economy, especially small-scale businesses in the area.

They also said that the situation had further increased the high cost of living in the riverine community, forcing many households to rely on contaminated water from reptile-infested wells for their daily consumption, with its attendant health implications.

A protester, known as Ibitonye, said: “We are protesting because of the absence of light and water. We are angry. The women of Kula are suffering. Please, we want the Federal Government to intervene.

“If you see the well we draw water from, you will shed tears for us. And this is injustice for us the people who have oil wells surrounding them. At least in Rivers State, we have the highest number of oil wells.

“Malaria wants to completely exterminate us because of the kind of water we drink and the environment we live in. Cholera is everywhere.” They, therefore, sent a save-our-soul message to the Governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara, authorities of Akuku-Toru Local Council, the Federal Government, as well as oil companies operating in the area, to come to their aid by restoring power supply in the Island to alleviate their sufferings.

“We are, therefore, calling on the governor, the local council chairman, Renaissance and Bella oil, to help us with light because we are suffering, no light, no water,” she said. (The Guardian)

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