Sachet and bottled water vendors in Awka and surrounding areas have decried mounting losses due to erratic electricity supply, which has forced them to depend on costly ice blocks to preserve their products amid intense heat.
The vendors, who spoke in separate interviews with CoreTruth in Awka on Wednesday, said the situation had drastically reduced their profit margins and threatened the sustainability of their businesses.
Mrs Chinonye Amadi, a sachet and bottled water seller, lamented that unstable power supply had made it nearly impossible to sell without chilling products.
“Before, we relied on electricity to cool our water, but now nothing sells without ice blocks.
” At the end of the day, whatever profit I make goes into buying ice,” she said.
Amadi added that the price of an ice block had surged from about N400 to N1,500 within a year.
“We are in the hot season when people want cold water. If your water is not chilled, customers will just walk away,” she said.
Mrs Anthonia Uzoma, a soft drink vendor, also expressed concern over the rising cost of cooling.
“I can not sell drinks without cooling them first, but the cost of ice blocks is too high. Sometimes I end the day in losses,” she said.
Another vendor, Mr Ogechukwu Okpala, said the situation had forced him to reduce the quantity of goods he stocks daily.
“I now buy fewer cartons because I cannot afford to keep spending so much on ice. Business is no longer as profitable as it used to be,” he said.
Similarly, Ms Kosarachi Akam, who operates a roadside water stand, said customers’ preference for chilled water had left her with little choice.
“People hardly buy ordinary water anymore. If it is not cold, they will not even price it. But buying ice every day is draining my capital.
”Before now, we buy ice black N200 to N300 but not it is N1,000 and above,” she said.
Ice block producers also attributed the price hike to increased production costs driven by poor electricity supply.
Mrs Benedict Ifemeje, an ice block seller, said she now relies heavily on petrol and diesel to power her cooling systems.
“We hardly get stable electricity, so we run our machines with fuel, which is very expensive. That is why the price of ice blocks has gone up,” she said.
She noted that when power supply was relatively stable the previous year, ice blocks sold for about N200 and N300.
“We can only appeal to the government and relevant power authorities to address the challenges of erratic electricity supply and rising fuel costs.
“The continued neglect may force many small-scale operators out of business. But if we have regular power supply, it will not only reduce operational costs but also boost productivity for small businesses across the state,” she said.
