Umulolo Ugbele may celebrate Christmas and New Year with no water supply.

If what Umuaka Times gathered last week concerning the scarcity of water that has hit Umulolo community in Ugbele Akah Autonomous Community is anything to go by, the residents in the community may face the serious challenge of buying every drop of water they will use during the upcoming Christmas and New Year celebrations. This is because the Umulolo borehole water project donated to the community in 2023 by Eziada Mrs Calista Ekechi (nee Ubasonye) has since stopped pumping out water due to a little damage that deserves an urgent attention.

Moved by what her people go through before having access to drinking water, Mrs Calista Ekechi, a daughter of the community married to Mr Mike Ekechi, a native of Obinze in Owerri West LGA Imo State teamed up with her husband and Federal Ministry of Works and Housing and gave her Umulolo people a borehole water donation. Sad enough, the borehole stopped functioning after about one year or so and from that time till now, the people of the community have been facing the challenge of water scarcity.

Umuaka Times local affairs correspondents who visited the community confirmed that the problem of the water project is a malfunctioning sumo. But before the sumo spoilt, there was first the problem of solar panel which used to generate power to the system to be able to pump out water. The cause of the damage according to the findings made by Umuaka Times was that an object hit the panel which consequently affected the generation of electricity to the system and the water stopped pumping.  The community made some efforts to fix the problem after some months but after fixing the solar panel, it was discovered that the system still failed to pump out water. It was at this point that experts were called to examine what may have gone wrong and they eventually confirmed that the sumo has damaged.

Findings made by Umuaka Times confirmed that the price of sumo ranges from N270, 000 to N350, 000 depending on the horse power. The findings show that 1HP solar submersible pump: ₦270,000 – ₦585,000 (with 350W solar panels). 1.5HP Solar Submersible Pump: ₦380,000 – ₦550,000. 2HP solar submersible pump: ₦420,000 to ₦550,000. 3HP solar submersible pump: ₦540,000 to ₦1,350,000. Also the price of generic 12V DC solar pump: ₦57,309 (2m3/h, 20m head).

As it stands, the problem of water scarcity facing Umulolo Ugbele is not too serious a challenge that will deprive the good people of the community access to drinking water in this Christmas and New Year period. Umuaka Times hereby passionately appeals to the people of the community of Umulolo Ugbeleand beyond to as a matter of extreme urgency, fix the water issue for the interest of all. Umulolo is blessed with men and women who have done a lot of philanthropy projects in and outside the community. It is the considered opinion of Umuaka Times that the problem still lingers because those who are well to do in the community have not been properly informed about the problem.
Mr and Mrs Mike and Calista Ekechi.

A youth in the community who refused to disclose his name also made an appeal to those he referred to as “ndidedeanyi” to come to their assistance. “You see, to buy water these days is very costly and we are at times chased out when we try to fetch water from the compounds of those who have private boreholes. Please we need our brothers to assist us.”