LOCKDOWN: Staying At Home Without Food, Public Utilities

When the Delta State Government ordered the lockdown of the state effective April 1, 2020, residents were apprehensive over how they will cope with hunger, epileptic or total absence of electricity and scarcity of water.

To stay at home means you have to eat even at a time you will ordinarily not eat when you are away from home, preserve food items stocked piled in deep freezers, tune in to radio and television sets to keep abreast of happenings around the country and the globe, as well as wash, bath, cook and flush the toilets which will obviously come under pressure with everyone at home.

This brings us to how far our public utilities can take us in times like we are in now.

Hunger will naturally come when the enzymes are actively at work and one could only supply them with raw materials which they would digest to keep one going healthy and strong.

The much one can eat is dependent on the linings of his or her pocket, just as the level of hunger tends to increase when one is not busy with work.

In this period of lockdown, those who could afford it had stockpiled food that would last them for the 14 days, while others not quite economically strong are hoping that the federal and state governments will one day credit their accounts using their BVN, to support their upkeep during the lockdown.

Electricity supply in the past six days of lockdown, particularly in Asaba,, has not been encouraging.

The feelers we got from MacCartney Obroto who lives at the Okpanam bye pass, Eddy Ekpri from Agric road Asaba, Igwe Otalor from DLA road Asaba, and others from the Infant Jesus, School of Midwifery, Marble Hill and Anwai road axis of the State Capital Territory confirmed that electricity supply had been quite unsupportive of the lockdown.

As for water supply, thank God for private boreholes that abound in the state capital to fill the gap created by the near absence of public water supply.

The State Ministry of Water Resources Development and its parastatals, particularly the Urban Water Board, have failed to provide water for residents, even with the huge resources invested in the water sector by the state government.

The situation got to a point where the state Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, on May 7, 2019 declared a State of Emergency in the water sector, with a view to making water available to the people, but to no avail.

Our reporter visited some public water facilities in Asaba for on the spot assessment of their capacity to deliver and the narrative was not good enough for an oil rich state.

The Saint Patrick’s College Head Works of the Urban Water Board, meant to supply water to residents of West End Asaba is in a sorry state, grossly dilapidated, and lacking every modern equipment to perform, including a functional power generating set.

The station depends solely on public power supply to pump water and clients are not connected to the Board’s underground pipe network to be able to have supply in their homes.

The situation at the Central Head Works, close to the Ogbeogonogo market is, however, different as water is supplied within the premises and to some parts of Cable Point area of Asaba, though not connected to residential apartments.

The General Manager of the Delta State Urban Water Board, Engineer N. I. Okoh, told our reporter that getting to supply water to residents in the State Capital Territory, particularly Asaba, had remained a major challenge to the Board.

Engineer Okoh said past attempts to get residents to key into the Board’s metering system had failed, disclosing that a stakeholders’ meeting was being proposed to educate clients on how to connect to the Board’s pipe network for regular water supply.

He confirmed that epileptic power supply was a big problem to the Board’s water delivery efforts.