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LOCAL SOLUTION: THE PERFECT TOOL FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT.

By Stephen Ojang in Wum.

 Participatory approach as all hands come on deck.

A Nigerian Ace singer, Charles Blackman in one of his song title "old good days," ponders when these old good days will come back again. This rhetorical reminiscence, was the driving force behind the recent move made by the population of Ndakwe in Wum Municipality, to maintain and upgrade their community water scheme, as their own contribution in curbing the perennial water scarcity in the Municipality.
 

They felt nostalgic when their water could not meet their desired needs. They also knew that doing it together for themselves and by themselves, will yield fruits reasons why they worked as a team for the sake of their community.
Today’s development pattern requires that we focus our lens on the community thereby fostering the bottom top development approach as a perfect move of denationalization for effective and efficient development.
 
How many of us can still vividly recall how our various communities back then use to mobilize themselves as a formidable force to reckon with, to dig gutters, roads linking one quarter to the other or one village to the other, clean farm to market roads, keep their water catchment areas clean as is the case today with the Ndakwe water management committee.

We all practice this without any form of external support and together we all succeeded. We did it so happily as if we didn’t need support. This old habit has been an inspiration to the Ndakwe Water Management Committee, led by its Vice President Mr. Abeng Charles, with financial assistance from the Management Committee President Mayor Dighambong Anthony  as they recently came out to keep their water catchment clean.

 

They also earmarked the construction of an additional catchment tank so as to be able to supply enough water to the Ndakwe population and even beyond. A total number of 10 public stand taps and 65 privately owned stand taps, supply 360 households. The Secretary General of the Ndakwe Water Management Committee, Mr. Fang Kum Adolf, flanked by a team from the Wum Council, made up of the Chief of Technical Service and Urban Development, Mr. Felefusah Asang Hosea, the Council Development Officer, CDO Mr. Eboa Akelendi Ku-Isoh and the Council Communication Officer, Mr. Stephen Ojang, had earlier paid visits to the catchment and dished out pieces of advice in order to enable the committee to jealously preserve the water project and bequeath it to younger generations.


The entire Ndakwe community carried out the cleaning exercise, the maintenance and projection for the construction of a new catchment tank. Their hope is now turned to the Wum council, to step in with a fresh impetus for the advancement of the project.
This giant step taken by then Ndakwe population is a great indication that the wind of change is conspicuously blowing across the municipality as many communities are now embracing the new development concept of local solution. This community oriented action by the Ndakwe population is worth emulating.


Permit me to end this write-up with a quotation from the Mayor of Wum Council, Councillor Dighambong Anthony Mvo;
"It is evident that together, we can build bridges, hospitals, schools, halls, farm to market roads and together we can build ourselves."




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