Posted on: 05:08 Fri, 26 Feb 2016



At some restaurants, customers opted
to drink bottled water whose price
rose to between N70 and N80.

The increase in price however
sparked protest from hawkers of
satchet water who lamented poor
sales.

They said a bag of satchet water
that hitherto sold for N100 per bag
now sells for N150 per bag.

Helen Usunobun who spoke to The
Nation said the situation was
worsen with the N60 paid daily to
council officials.

She said they could not cope with
the hike in price which would leave
them making N30 profit for very
bag of satchet water.

Her words:-

“They said dollar has gone up.
Whether dollar is in the water,
we don’t know.” Another hawker,
Mrs. Enoma Blessing, said people
that used to consume four satchet
water now buy only one per day.



A water factory owner, Mr. Irhue
John, ascribed the hike in price to
increase in sourcing for packing
materials.

Irhue said a film roll that sold for
N600,000 last week now sells for
N920,000 while packaging material
rose from N3300 to N5000.

According to him:-

“Nobody can give water
treatment and sell at the former
price of N100. It is a terrible
situation we have found
ourselves.”

“It is the sourcing of the materials
that is causing these problems.”
Chairman of the Water Producers
in the state, Henry Eremokhai, said
the approved price by the
association was N120.

Henry noted that many water
factories have been closed due to
dearth of packaging materials.