DPR probes contaminated water, as Niger community cries out

From Yakubu Mustapha Minna

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) in Niger state has sent officials to the community and the filing station that collected samples of the water for testing and investigation to ascertain the source of the complaint of contaminated water.
The Niger Operation Controller of DPR, Engineer Abdullahi Isah Jankara said after the investigation by some of his officials, the collected samples of the water would be taken for testing while the owner of the filling station would be invited for questioning.
Jankara explained that the situation cannot be known until the samples collected randomly from the community are taken for investigation to come up with real source of the contamination so as to find the permanent solution to the problem.
The affected community of contaminated sources of water in Takogi Ward of Doko in Lavun local government area of Niger state are being threatened and harassed by the owner of the filling station, Jagaba Nupe Filling Station which is being fingered of being the cause of the contamination.
The residents of the community had cried out about the impending health and environmental challenge the contaminated water may pose to the people and the environment after all efforts to get government attention had failed.
The owner of the filling station known as Alhaji Jagaba has been using unknown persons and the police to harass and threaten the people for going to the media to complain about the contamination of their water sources.
It was gathered that the contamination of the water sources in Takogi ward of Doko where their boreholes and hand dug wells had been contaminated for over two years.
The residents of the community and investigations revealed that water from Wells and boreholes in the area had strong smell of petrol to the extent that the people cannot use the water to cook, bath or wash.