Lukman Abdulmalik
Students of the news site section of Bayero University Kano (BUK) on Friday complained about water scarcity and the hardship they go through to get water around the school campus.
They claimed that the water supply to their various hostels in the school has been insufficient since the resumption of the second semester.
According to some of the students, the development has exposed them to untold hardship and they have resorted to fetching water from faculties far away from their hostels.
In an interaction with some female students, they said some of them who are buoyant have been buying sachet water to cook and bathe, while the have-nots have to trek a distance to fetch water.
Humaira Akilu Yahya a 400-level student lamented that “I felt bad, one needed to wake up as early as possible to queue for water.
“Most times the water drizzles from the tap, causing students to spend hours in the queue, sometimes if the queue is too long some students won’t find water to fetch due to exhaustion, this makes them trek further in search of water.”
Another student, Khairat Muazzam, a 200-level student said: “I used to trek all the way from Ramat Hostel to Gambo Sawaba Hostel in search of water.
She added that “Whenever there is no water at Sawaba Hostel, I have to trek down to Quranic Center, Computer Science or Engineering Department to get water, which is about 15 minutes trekking to and fro.”
Moses Peter, a 100-level student, detailed that the lack of water has always made her go to lectures late, adding that the school authority should look into the matter, “we are going for lectures, writing tests, preparing for exams, and still, we have to spend hours on the queue to get water.
“We don’t even know what the Students Union Government (SUG) is doing regarding the issue of water scarcity in the school.”
Reacting to the issue of water scarcity in the new site campus, Lamara Garba, the Head of the Directorate of Public Affairs of the institution in a telephone interview said: “The issue of water scarcity, lack of electricity and other amenities is a perennial thing, adding that the school management is doing its best to ease the situation.”
