The Emir of Borgu, Dr Sani Haliru-Dantoro, Sunday, narrated the sordid experience of how the people of New Bussa and other parts of his kingdom survived for half a decade (50 years) without portable drinking water after they were displaced from their ancestral homes by the construction of Kainji hydroelectric power dam.
Speaking at the commissioning of the Borgu Water Works project, the royal father expressed happiness that the project has finally come to fruition 30 years after it was initiated.
He said, “That the residents of New Bussa and environs endured the lack of potable water for the past half a century is an indication of the patriotic zeal and maturity of Borgu people. This lack of potable water for such a long time evokes even more emotional feelings, considering the presence of Nigeria’s largest lake in Borgu.”
The monarch said the people of Old Bussa were promised the most basic of human necessities by the Nigerian government through the Kainji Dam Authority including provision of potable water, adding that the promise remained unfulfilled to the intervention of the National Hydroelectric Power Producing Areas Development Commission (N-HYPPADEC).
“Again, this ironic anomaly also manifests till this day in the non-connection of major Borgu towns to electric power supply despite the citing of the Kainji Power Station in Borgu territory,” he said.
In a message of appreciation issued Sunday in Minna, the the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of Borgu Youth Development Association (BYDA), Yakubu Aliyu, described the water supply project as a lifeline for the residents of New Bussa who have been suffering the scarcity of water in the kingdom over the years.
