“The goal is for ABH to have 24 hour water supply on each floor and on each block” – hall warden.

– Irene Opara, ABH PRESS

It is common knowledge that on the 8th of January 2019, the hall warden and porters met with the hall assembly members. Conclusions from the meeting led to the early morning raid of E block and A block topmost floor. But brownites should be rest assured that not all decisions made in the meeting are to have a negative effect on the students.
The hall warden, Dr. F A Bello explained in as much detail as she could the history of the water problem in Alexander Brown Hall. “The alumni class who volunteered to sponsor the water project are not happy that students are still carrying buckets.” She said; “their goal is for ABH to have constant water supply on each floor and on each block.” She later went on to explain the ups and downs encountered in the water project.
At the beginning of the project, reduced storage was diagnosed by the engineers as the cause of the water problem, thus indicating that measures to increase the number of water tanks is the reasonable course of action and the direct remedy to the problem. Funds were raised by the alumni set as quickly as they could to buy tanks of various sizes that we now see today around the hall.
But still the water shortage was all but resolved. The engineers came back and made another diagnosis of insufficient water at the areas that the pre-installed pumping machines are situated. The engineer recommended and insisted that another machine be purchased an installed between D block and E block, despite previous records from other engineers that suggested that that piece of land is dry. The pumping machine was fixed during our 2 months strike action and its installation yielded no results.
Finally, an industrial pumping machine was bought and installed. The pump has been serving us and providing the water that some floors see every other morning or evening. Yet, the goal of the alumni has not been achieved and in order for it be achieved, they called in the engineers again to make another diagnosis. The current engineer recognised reduced storage as the aetiology of the problem. Right back where we started!
However, during the meeting, it was identified that there are leaks on almost every floor in every block in the hall and aside from that, pipes and water tanks are leaking too. This only means that the students are getting a fraction of the water that is pumped everyday.
She came to the conclusion that all leaks will be plugged by the ending of this month or the next. If that does not fix the problem, it will at least make it easier to identify the actual problem.