By Rauf Oyewole
The Bauchi State Urban Water and Sewerage Corporation said the introduction of a mobile court by the state government has significantly reduced illegal water pipe connections and vandalism of water infrastructure across the state.
Managing Director of the Corporation, Hajiya Uwani Garba Dagauda, disclosed this during a three-day Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector performance review workshop organized by the Bauchi State Government with support from UNICEF.
Dagauda said the mobile court, approved by Governor Bala Mohammed, was helping authorities prosecute individuals involved in pipeline vandalism and unauthorized water connections, which had previously disrupted water supply in many areas.
“If any vandal is caught, the court will handle him. And also those that do illegal connections, when we get them, we take them to court and the court handles them,” she said.
According to her, the enforcement mechanism has led to noticeable improvement in water supply across the state.
“All this vandalization has been reduced to a minimum, and there is improvement in water supply too because of the backing we have from the governor,” Dagauda added.
She, however, identified staffing shortages as another major challenge affecting the corporation’s operations, especially in billing and revenue collection.
Dagauda explained that the number of casual workers in the corporation was now almost equal to permanent staff, stressing that additional manpower was urgently needed to sustain efficient service delivery.
She said discussions had already been held with the governor and the Head of Service, with directives issued for the corporation to submit details of required personnel for approval.
“They said we cannot stop providing essential services, so staffing should not be the issue,” she said.
The workshop also reviewed broader challenges affecting the WASH sector in Bauchi State, including fragmented data systems and the need for stronger coordination among stakeholders.
Speaking in an interview with Journalists on Wednesday, UNICEF WASH specialist, Stella Ifomo-Kafo-Tevi said while Bauchi State was making progress, the lack of harmonized data remained a major challenge.
“We have fragmentation of WASH data in bits and pieces, some in health, some in education, some in the Ministry of Women Affairs,” she said.
“Different donors also have different methods of data reporting and dashboards. But in Nigeria we have a nationally approved platform for data generation and reporting: WASHIMS, the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Information Management System.” She stated.
The WASH Specialist noted that harmonizing state data onto the WASHIMS platform was a priority outcome for the workshop, to ensure government and donors could track investments and results consistently.
“From the analysis, the investment that was made is high, but we wanted to see how it was tracked. We want a universal way of tracking it so that even the government can be proud of what it has spent, and donors can look back and say we have really supported the government,” Ifomo-Kafo-Tevi said.
Reviewing sanitation progress, Ifomo-Kafo-Tevi said Bauchi was on average in sanitation coverage and faced challenges with hygiene practices and sustaining open defecation-free status in communities that had achieved it.
The second day of the workshop focused on analyzing findings and answering “how, what, and who” questions, she said. Day three will be dedicated to developing concrete solutions to advance water, sanitation and hygiene across the state.
“My general call is that all hands should be on deck,” Ifomo-Kafo-Tevi said.
“This is not only about the government. Entrepreneurs, private partners, CSOs, community leaders, everyone has a role to play.
The state government needs to be on the driving seat to make sure that the performance of the WASH sector in Bauchi State is taken to an enviable stage.”
For Bauchi State Urban Water and Sewerage Corporation, pipeline vandalism and understaffing are immediate operational challenges.
