Water Manifesto (II): Enugu residents suffer deprivation as Ivo dam lies in ruins

Access to potable water is one of the basic deliverables expected of a government, but the people of Enugu — in both the metropolis and rural areas — have suffered its absence for more than two decades.

The promise of good water, through the Ivo dam, has been dangled before them for many years, but they have waited in excruciating hope — and in vain.

To highlight the travails of the residents, ANU ADELAKUN, in the second of a three-part documentary, traversed the south-east state to reveal the barricades of mismanagement and oversight letdown depriving the people of access to water.

With more than N4.5 billion budgeted for the project since 2012, Ivo dam was expected to have been completed in 2014, but over ten years since inception, it lies abandoned and in ruins.

In the documentary titled ‘The Harvesters of Water’, Adelakun takes a deep dive into the abandonment of the project, the allocated funds for its construction, and the persons behind the failed execution.

Going beyond the metropolitan areas of the state, she probed the root cause of the problem from Mpu village in Aninri LGA, where she discovered not only the peoples’ circumstantial fraternity with unclean water but the destruction of their livelihoods as a result of the failed dam project. 

Adelakun also scrutinised the systematic extortion of the “poor people” of Enugu metropolis by water cartels — who have taken advantage of the situation to build a lucrative water business at 9th Mile, a popular area in the state. 

This latest discovery follows the damage done to the Osun River by gold miners — a documentary published as the first of the three-part series.

WATCH PART II OF THE WATER MANIFESTO

This documentary was executed for the 2022 Bertha Fellowship in partnership with Cable Newspaper Journalism Foundation (CNJF) and TheCable Newspaper.