ICRC Alhamduri Project Improves Access To Water To 80,000 People In Maiduguri

Close to 80,000 residents and internally displaced people in Maiduguri have better access to water following the construction and rehabilitation of a large-scale water plant in the western part of Maiduguri by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in collaboration with the Ministry of Water Resources in Borno State.

Over the past years, access to water for people of the Lake Chad region has increasingly become difficult.

Surface water sources have been dwindling, and the protracted armed conflict has kept several hundred thousand of people away from their home for years, depriving them of their regular source of water.

In just a few years, Maiduguri population increased from 2 to well over 3 million inhabitants, offering refuge to thousands of people fleeing the violence.

Water became more expensive, more difficult to get and of poorer quality for the residents as well as for the displaced people, exposing the entire population to increased health risks.

That is why the ICRC partnered with the Ministry of Water Resources of Borno State for Alhamduri Water Project.

With labor sourced within the community, the ICRC expanded over the past year the capacity of the existing infrastructures, by drilling three additional boreholes and building the production facility (ground and elevated tanks). Water is now flowing.

“We are glad about this development in our community as it means our children will not have to go distances to get water,” explained Bulama Mohammed Bulumkutu, one of the community leaders in DalaHamduri.

50,000 recipients of water from Alhamduri water plan are residents who can now get water just by opening their taps at home. At the same time, the plant also ensure access to water for the internally displaced people hosted earlier this year in stadium camp.

More work will continue to reach the full capacity of 9 million litres per day for 150,000 recipients of Alhamduri project.

Currently the Ministry of Water Resources, is working to connect more homes to the existing distribution lines.