The Soft Issue
August 2017
Story from Within
EVERYTHING IS
AGAINST ME
There is a rampant water problem in
most student areas. Sometimes it is only
one borehole to over 50 people. What
happens for all the student lose trying to
fetch water?
By: Opeyemi Adesina
T
oday is a long day for me. I have been in school
since 8am. Lectures unfolding into another;
marathon classes. I also had to organise one for
some students, whom I couldn’t avoid. By the time
I was done, it was just a few minutes past six when i got
to the school park. Getting a bus is another ordeal though.
I had to faithfully be the last person on the queue. I can’t
even sight the starting of the queue.
Adding that there are mixtures of urine and faeces in
the water we drink.
I’ m currently at the water point. Humans and these
yellow kegs are lined up waiting for their turns. A
guy is huffing and puffing as he pumps the handle
of the manual borehole. The way he pumps makes
me wonder if he has the same need to satisfy as I do.
As he finishes his pumping, he let out a sigh of relief
and logs his bucket away from the pump. The next
person in line triumphantly scrambles to fill her kegs.
She has two kegs and two buckets to fill.
I am at home now. Happy that I made it soon and scared
of things needed to be done. Course works that need
attention. My friends would be here soon and I need to
get something cooking for their arrival. To get anything
done, I have to get water.
Almost everything is against me in this school. I
hustle with other students to get mini buses to
get to school: getting fees paid at microfinance
bank, meeting deadline of assignments. I wonder
the amount of productive time I waste on queues
in school and off school such as this. A lot of
beneficial things I could have done with those
awfully wasted hours, to my self and society at
large.
Water scarcity and students are no pal. On several
occasions, over two hundred students are left at the
mercy of one water source. Living in one of this hostel
where I pay 30k per annum just to get a cover above my
head. My landlord never bothers digging a well for us, and
we aren’t complaining.
Unlike those who could afford the well to be hostel, where
they pay over 90k per year, and get at least, these basic
amenities with ease. Although we have the same suffering
of electricity, which leaves them to fight over the general
bore hole with us, but they have better chances in often
times.
There is a dearth of good facilities in Nigeria. Not having
enough of basic resources is now part of the blood in our
veins. We complain for a second, and suffer in silence the
rest. A report by Daily Trust in Nigeria reports that some
states in Nigeria lack access to clean and drinkable water.
52
This queue is getting fat. People are now joining
by the sides and I can’t even recognize which
line lead to the borehole. Grumbling have start
to emanate. The last straw that broke off the
line, is this guy who came and directly went to
the mouth of the borehole to drop his bucket.
I am watching. Then others began to struggle,
querying the guy, the chaos starts, and the line
scattered. I begin to curse my fate. I pick up my
bucket and head back towards home.
the
LENS