Residents of Abaji metropolis and in its environs in Abaji Area Council of the FCT are groaning as water scarcity has worsened four months after the vandalization of high ten­sion elec­tri­city cables sup­ply­ing power to the area.

Abuja Metro had reported that suspected vandals in September, 2025, vandalised high ten­sion cables con­nect­ing Yaba-Piri to Kwali on the Abuja-Lokoja high­way which led to para­lysis of eco­nomic and social activ­it­ies, espe­cially access to pot­able water in the area.

However, our reporter who went round some streets within the metro­polis on Saturday observed that most house­holds, espe­cially women, woke up as early as 5am and joined water queues in neigh­bour­ing houses where water was pumped with gen­er­at­ors.

It was observed that the worst affected by the water scarcity are Nuku com­munity, Unguwar Ayaura Pipeline, Abaji Low-Cost, Junior/Senior Staff Quar­ters, Unguwar Sabon-Tasha, Unguwar Wadata, Unguwar Manko, Naha­rati, Unguwar Kpok­po­lobi and Unguwar Liman.

A resident, Mrs. Fatima Ibrahim, said she woke up as early as 5am to carry a basin of water on her head from a neigh­bour’s house at the cost of N100.

She said, “Even when I wake up as early as 5am to go and fetch water from a neighbours house, before I get there, there is usu­ally a long queue which I have to join until it gets to my turn before I fetch.”

Another resident, Mrs. Zainab Dan­juma, also lamented the water problem facing residents of the area, say­ing she also car­ried a basin on her head to buy water from com­mer­cial bore­holes.

She said, “Actually, my husband has a bore­hole, but you know how things are in this coun­try; not every­one can afford diesel every­day to pump water.”

She fur­ther said that she pat­ron­ised water vendors whenever she dis­covered her chil­dren might go to school late, hence that she bought a truck at N1,200 in order to enable her to bathe the chil­dren and pre­pare them for school.

Mr. Abdul­lahi Mohammed, a res­id­ent of Abaji Low-Cost Hous­ing, noted that sev­eral res­id­ents who had private bore­holes found it dif­fi­cult to pump water due to lack of elec­tri­city for over four months.

He said most of the res­id­ents depended on buy­ing water from vendors at exor­bit­ant prices, with a truck which was sold at N700 now sold at N1,200.

Mrs. Afiniki Barn­a­bas, in Nuku com­munity, said des­pite there being a solar bore­hole provided by the coun­cil’s chair­man, it was not enough for the entire people of the com­munity.

She said, “In fact, even the solar borehole that I am talking about; we have to wait for water to fill the over­head tank, and before you know it, the water has fin­ished. The next thing is for us to go down to the stream where women wait to scoop water com­ing out from the ground.”

Reacting, the Chief of Staff to the chair­man of the coun­cil, Mohammed Kandi, who also attrib­uted the worsen­ing water scarcity across the met­ro­polis to vandalization of elec­tri­city cables, said the coun­cil had made sev­eral efforts to fix the cables.

He said the Chair­man, Alhaji Abubakar Umar Abdul­lahi, had met with the top man­age­ment of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Com­pany (AEDC) from Gwag­walada and had concluded arrange­ments in order to fix the cables so that both social and eco­nomic activities would bounce back. (Daily Trust)