Bauchi Water Board Says Water is Safe for Public Consumption Despite Flood

 

Residents of the flood ravaged areas have been expressing fears about the safety of the tap water released to their homes and the likelihood of outbreak of water borne diseases.

But Alhaji Aminu Aliyu, General Manager of the board, who spoke with newsmen in Bauchi, allayed such fears, adding that the water from the board had been properly treated.

"That large volume of water had washed away most of the contaminants that had gone into the reservoir and such contaminants had escaped through the spillway. Even the smelly environment caused by the flood has gone.

"So, the quality of the raw water is not as bad as it used to be at this season of the year. It is fairly good and we don’t face much problem treating it to portability level for the consumption of the populace.’’

Aliyu said that the board normally increased its water treatment level at this period of the year to forestall the possibility of contaminants getting into the reservoir.

He said that water supply equipment in most locations in the state were not affected by the flood as bore holes were being used to supply water to such areas.

The general manager said that the bore holes were drilled above flood level, adding that such measure had eliminated the possibility of surface water contamination in the state.

"In other areas we use bore hole water. In Azare, we’ve our bore holes along the River Jama’are. During the construction of these bore holes, their heads were raised above flood level and therefore the ground water cannot penetrate the bore holes.

"Because of the design and construction of the system, the flood has not contaminated our source of water for Azare and Jama’are. All other places are borehole- based and they are not even along the river bank.’’

On how to prevent flood disaster in the country, Aliyu said that good engineering design of infrastructure would eliminate most of the human errors.

He also said that proper understanding of factors such as climate and topology of areas would help to reduce natural disasters caused by floods.