Water insecurity in rural African communities is not simply a resource problem. It is, at its core, a structural outcome of political-economic arrangements that consistently shortchange peripheral areas. Drawing on urban bias theory, this study examines the coping strategies employed by residents of Gashua community, Bade Local Government Area, Yobe State, Nigeria, in response to chronic poor water supply. A mixed-methods design combined a structured questionnaire administered to 150 respondents selected through multistage cluster and simple random sampling, with in-depth interviews among four purposively selected key informants. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics; qualitative data were thematically transcribed and analyzed in narrative form. The study finds that 61.6% of respondents rated water supply as poor or very poor, with piped infrastructure virtually absent and boreholes (40.0%) and wells (36.7%) serving as primary sources. The pattern of infrastructural neglect observed, specifically broken pipes (30.8%) and poor maintenance (28.3%), reflects state resource allocation consistent with urban bias theory. Coping strategies, including borehole construction, water hauling, storage, point-of-use treatment, and vendor purchase, are stratified by socioeconomic status. Wealthier households absorb the fixed cost of private boreholes, while lower-income families bear elevated health risks through reliance on unregulated vendors. Typhoid fever (40.8%) and cholera (31.6%) emerged as the dominant disease outcomes. The study argues that coping strategies in Gashua reproduce existing socioeconomic inequalities and that durable redress requires structural investment in water governance rather than household-level adaptation alone.