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

Almost all the households in Makurdi that depend on wells for their daily water supply have lost them to the drought.

A cross-section of residents who spoke to journalists on Saturday lamented that they could not get water to buy, even when they had money.

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 use and bathing since then.

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

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

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

“A truckload of water, which contains 10 of 20-litre jerrycans, used to be N600, but I am now buying it at the rate of N1,000.

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

Joseph Akogwu, another resident, said he used his motorcycle to carry two 25-litre jerrycans from his Ankpa Quarters residence as far as BENARDA in search of water every day.

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

“Mairuwa, too, are not finding it easy to get 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,” Mr Akogwu said.

Sunday Orinya said he had a 3,000-litre tank at home, where a water tanker driver used to supply him with water monthly at the rate of N4,000 during the rainy season.

However, Mr Orinya said he had to start filling the tank weekly 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 with water because of the 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,” Mr Orinya said.

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

(NAN)