A 17-year-old girl, identified as Elizabeth, tragically drowned while attempting to fetch water from a river in Koropka, a suburb of Minna, the capital of Niger State.
According to Leadership, the Koropka community has been without pipe-borne water due to ongoing construction work in the area, forcing residents to rely on the river as their primary water source.
On Saturday, March 8, 2025, Elizabeth, her sister, and other residents went to the river to collect water when the incident occurred. Zakari Lambata, a local resident, recounted that Elizabeth’s elder sister ran to him for help in rescuing her drowning sibling. After nearly an hour of searching, some youths in the area recovered Elizabeth’s body.
Lambata made an urgent appeal to the government and the responsible company to restore the community’s water supply to prevent further tragedies, as the Chanchaga River is the only accessible water source for the residents since the water supply from the local water board was cut off.
