By ONYEJE ABUTU-JOEL

Some residents of Makurdi, the Benue capital have lamented over the acute scarcity of water in the metropolis.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that almost all the households in Makurdi that depend on wells for their daily water supplies had lost them to the drought.

A cross section of residents, who spoke to NAN on Saturday, lamented that they could not get water to buy even with their money.

Miss Rose Abah, a resident of Makurdi said that the well in their compound dried up as early as December, 2024 and she had been depending on people selling water popularly called ‘Mairuwa’ for both domestic and bathing since then.

However, Miss Abah said that it had also become difficult for her to get water from Mairuwa since the beginning of the month of February, 2025.

She said that her Mairuwa customers kept telling her that they could not see water to buy and resell to her.

Miss Abah, who also complained that Mairuwa had increased the price of their water per truck, lamented that not even the price could encourage them to promptly supply water to customers.

“A truckload of water which contains 10 of 20 litres jerrycans used to be N600 but I am now buying it at the rate of N1000.

“Some Mairuwa even sell for N1,500 depending on the distance from the source of supply, yet we do not see to buy”, Miss Abah explained.

Mr Joseph Akogwu, another resident said he used his motorcycle from his Ankpa Quarters’ residence to as far as BENARDA carrying two of 25 litres jerrycans to search for water everyday.

“Our area is not connected to water board, so people depend on boreholes which mostly dry up during dry season.

“Mairuwa too are not finding it easy getting water because they have to solely depend on water tankers to supply them before they resell, so we are just praying to God for rain to start falling early this year,” Akogwu said.

Mr Sunday Orinya said he had 3000 litres tank at home where water tanker driver used to supply him water monthly at the rate of N4000 during rainy season.

However, Orinya said he had to start filling the tank weekly now at the rate of N10,000 after his well dried up in January.

He said that sometimes he found it difficult to get the tanker driver to supply him water because of the water scarcity.

“Right now it is not even about the money but about the availability of water because sometimes I have my money ready to buy but the tanker driver too will not have to sell to me.

“I have got the phone numbers of three sets of tanker drivers so that I can switch customer service, but the story is the same with all of them as they always complain that the queue for water at the source is too long,” Orinya said.

The residents, therefore, called on Gov Hyacinth Alia to rescue them from the scourge of water scarcity by providing the whole Makurdi with clean pipe borne water. (NAN)