The Noises Outside Itu Mbonuso: When Water Has Enemy
Otobong Sampson
“Water no get enemy” is a Fela Anikulapo Kuti timeless classic that came in his 1975 album — Expensive Shit. The underlying message in its lyrics is the essentiality of water to human life. Since water is too important to existence, no one can afford to be its enemy.

On Wednesday November 13th, Governor Umo Eno joined the people of Ogu, Itu Mbonuso in Ini Local Government Area in celebration of a breakthrough project. It is a solar-powered water project with a treatment plant and reticulation system that feeds six villages including a health center. The project is one of 12 similar water initiatives currently underway across the state.
Water reticulation project is not a borehole. It is a huge project. Some water projects are so massive that they cost hundreds of millions of naira, and even billions to execute. In 2020, four years ago, Rivers State Government put the cost of a proposed Port Harcourt Water and Sanitation Project at $328 million (which was approximately 127.2 billion naira at the exchange rate of that time). The state was to contribute $48million to the project while World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB) were to contribute $80 million and $200 million respectively. It is instructive to note that the said project involved the rehabilitation and upgrading of existing water facilities in Port Harcourt and Obio/Okpor local government areas only.
For those in blessed terrains – on a low plain who can easily access water through regular boreholes, and for others in urban centres who are rich enough to afford purified bottled water, what happened in Ogu should not be celebrated. Not so for the people of the affected communities who for many years were drinking coloured water with attendant health risks. They were without safe water for several decades.
