Amina Khalid Muhammad
Children in Gogel, a rural community in Warawa Local Government Area of Kano State, are missing out on school as families struggle daily to find water. With no functioning water infrastructure, residents depend on a stagnant pond shared by both people and animals.
A Kano Times visit to the area showed residents scooping water from the Sharifai pond—a brown, open body of water exposed to contamination and used by livestock.
“We have no other option,” said Malam Shuaibu Muhammad, a local resident. “In the dry season, it’s even worse. People wake up before dawn to get water, and even then, it’s not clean. But it’s all we have to drink and cook with.”
Another resident, Mukhtar Dan Almajiri, pointed to long-abandoned water facilities. “They once brought hand pumps, but none work now. The wells collapsed, and the platforms are just places where kids play. The real struggle is for the younger children. They spend hours fetching water every day and can’t go to school,” he said.
The community’s reliance on unsafe water sources increases the risk of disease, while also disrupting education and daily life—especially for children who are often tasked with collecting water for their families.
Despite previous complaints and visits by officials, residents say little has changed.
When contacted, the Kano State Commissioner for Water Resources, Alhaji Umar Haruna Doguwa, confirmed that the ministry is aware of the situation in Gogel and other rural communities.
“We have plans to fix broken hand pumps and drill new boreholes where needed,” he said, adding that implementation will begin gradually.
