By Diana Omueza

Nigerian Indigenous Women in Mining and Natural Resources Organisation (NIWIMNRO) has provided potable water to Kuchiko Community in Tafa Local Government Area of Niger.

Ms Felicia Dairo, Executive Director of the group, said this at the inauguration of a borehole in Kuchiko on Thursday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the project is with support from the Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals Development.

Dairo said that the borehole would create visibility, especially for the local miners in the community who were mostly women.

She said that the borehole was a direct response to the urgent need for clean and safe water for the women and children in the community that consume contaminated water.

“The borehole is a significant milestone, we have seen the health implication of the contaminated water they consume and we want to ease the stress for the women and by extension help the community.

“As an organisation working for women in the mining sector, this is part of our mandate to ensure women are empowered, recognised and valued as contributors to sustainable development.

“This intervention is not just a convenience, it is a life-changing shift that improves health, saves time, and restores dignity,” she said.

Dairo said that beyond the borehole, the group was focussed on amplifying the role of women in sustaining the mining value chain, socially, economically, and environmentally.

She said that the Kuchiko-Camp was not merely another rural settlement but a beacon of untapped human capital, driven by the strength, creativity, and leadership of its women.

She called for collaborations and partnership with other civil groups, donor agencies and the government to empower artisanal miners in the country.

Dairo said that with the appropriate intervention, miners would be fully formalised and middlemen extortion and other exploitation eliminated.

She called for legal protections, economic recognition, and institutional support to motivate women in mining by empowering them and enhancing their vision.

Mrs Halima Ibrahim, Assistant Director, Artisanal and Small Scale Mining Department, Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, said the borehole was through the government’s extensive support services to women in mining.

According to Ibrahim, government is encouraging mining activities and supporting informal mining groups to formalise their activities.

“The government’s commitment to enhance mining makes it easier when groups reach out to us to help them access the miners in different communities across the country.

“We see it as an opportunity for the government to continue its exercise and these informal women miners in this community are among those our department is assisting to formalise their activities,” she said.

She said that the women in the community were in the final process of formalising their cooperative, adding that this would gain them more visibility for government and stakeholders’ interventions.

Mrs Victoria Samuel, a member of the Kuchiko Informal Women Mining Group, appreciated the organisation for empowering the community with potable water after over 40 years of existence.

“For over 40 years, we go to the river to fetch water to drink, cook, wash our clothes and it is the same water we wash the minerals we mine and cows also graze and drink from the water.

“Many of our people have fallen sick and died due to the bad water consumption because we can’t afford to buy sachet water to drink.

“All that will change now because we now have good source of water, our health will improve. We will no longer walk long distances to fetch water and our children will finally see good and clean water,” she said.

She appreciated the organisation and requested for more interventions especially in the provision of infant and maternal health facilities and schools for children.

Mr Samuel Hassan, the Chief of the community, said that the borehole had brought to an end the consumption of polluted water and the long-suffering walk of women in search of water.

“Where we fetch water is very far and the water is polluted. But all that is over now with this borehole,” he said.

He appealed to the government to provide hospitals or medical facilities for women, schools for children and access road to the community. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Ismail Abdulaziz