A Local Area Mechanic’s innovation keeps water flowing in north-west Nigeria.
The 'magic hands' of Haruna Sadiq, a local area mechanic has made the water woes of several communities in Nigeria’s Kebbi state, disappear, by repairing their faulty hand pumps.
BIRNIN KEBBI, 12 MARCH 2024 - At the break of dawn every day, Haruna Sadiq wakes up to one question on his mind… where will the next call come from?
His weather-worn phone remains abuzz with voices soliciting his help to fix faulty or broken-down hand pumps. His daily routine commences, as Haruna makes his way fixing faulty 'water machines', across the Kebbi landscape.
But for Haruna, a Local Area Mechanic (LAM) nicknamed the “Handpump Doctor” for his expertise in bringing back to life abandoned, 'dead' hand pumps, work is often not just a way of keeping busy. This unassuming savior finds joy and fulfillment seeing his people, particularly women and children, get easy access to clean water.
Equipped with his unique abilities, Haruna is not only restoring access to water in communities with the tools provided to him, but he has also invented a locally fabricated fishing tool for Afridev hand pumps, providing an enduring solution to the challenges associated with rehabilitating Afridev hand pumps each time there is “rod detachment”.
Before his invention, repair of commonly used Afridev hand pumps was almost impossible. Many water facilities were abandoned in several communities in Kebbi state due to this. Today, this homegrown device has aided the recovery of equipment lost down the hole and keeps the hand pumps producing water.
"One of the things I enjoy most in some of these communities is not just the money they pay for my work, it is seeing the smiles on people's faces on the realisation that there will be clean water, no matter what. People show appreciation by offering me all kinds of gifts, but I often turn them down. I am excited, nevertheless, because the gifts show just how much they value the work I do to ensure these taps stay functional to provide them clean water. They know if water facilities are bad, there will be a big problem”.
Before 2022, Haruna had plied his trade as a local plumber with low patronage and income, limited only to his area of residence until his training on hand pump repairs yielded a growing goodwill.
However, UNICEF, through the United States Agency for International Development's (USAID} Improving Water, Sanitation Hygiene (IWASH) programme, Haruna and several others trained as a LAM, specializing in hand pump borehole repairs.
Haruna is a rare one though. He chose to share his skillset with the local mechanics, by training and mentoring these young boys to empower their community.
"I have nine people who are learning the skill from me. I take them to the site, and they watch me fix the hand pumps. They can now do the job. I divided them into three teams and anytime I am indisposed, I send them out instead,"
Although his team are enjoying working to keep taps in communities running with clean water, a key challenge is the scarcity of spare parts, and the time it takes to procure them.
“We have to travel far to get these items," says Haruna.
Nurudeen Yakubu Mai-Arewa, Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) coordinator of Arewa Local Government Area, however, feels that despite these challenges, the LAM scheme has become a game changer in meeting the water needs of communities in the local government.
"Each LAM was allocated five wards, out of which each ward has several communities, so each LAM has between 100 and 150 communities under his control, and they are ensuring that issues with hand pumps are fixed quickly," he said.
A resident of the Gimbutu community, Mohamed Sani, testified to this success story, in his sleepy village. The Gimbutus have been living without electricity supply from the national grid for several months now. The LAM miracle workers have kept their water taps gushing, despite such bottlenecks. His is one of many such relieved endorsements, locals who now enjoy easy access to potable water through the scheme which is being hailed as the single biggest public good.
