•Water corporations must run efficiently if we are to check the dangerous trend
The haphazard digging of boreholes in the country seems to be getting out of hand, with the official alarm raised by the Federal Government. Mrs. Sarah Reng Ochekpe, Minister of Water Resources, during a recent courtesy visit on her by members of the Association of Water Well Drilling Ring Owners and Practitioners in Abuja pointed out the peril inherent in such habit. She said: “The construction of boreholes indiscriminately is capable of causing earth tremor. The need for proper and effective regulation of groundwater abstraction is now of utmost importance.’’
In official and house-hold circles, borehole drilling has become rampantly disturbing. Governments at all levels shamefully join the bandwagon of borehole diggers even when an institution, usually the water corporations of states – primarily established to provide water for the citizenry, have failed to satisfactorily discharge their responsibilities. The sad trend will in the long run result in environmental hazards such as over-abstraction of ground water, salt intrusion, aquifer depletion and water quality degradation, among others.
But, of what significance is the minister’s alarm, in view of the debilitating state of public water supply in the country? The rural areas across the land have been subjected to perpetual state of lack of potable water. They rely on river and stream water for drinking, with attendant vulnerability to avoidable water-borne diseases. Even in most towns and cities that once boasted of effective public water system, the situation on ground is very pathetic.
What the state of affairs underscores is governments’ insensitivity to the water needs of Nigerians. Since life’s sustenance largely depends on water, governments are constitutionally expected to preserve life. Therefore, we expect those governing to show sufficient, not superfluous concern for the quality of water that the governed drink. After all, water aids digestion and absorption of food; helps maintain proper muscle tone; supplies oxygen and nutrients to the cells; rids the body of wastes; and serves as a natural air conditioning system.
In fact, water transports, and chemically breaks down fats, carbohydrates, proteins, and salts in the body system. Thus, the provision of drinkable water in abundance is akin to government being alive to its responsibility of showing deserved interest in the wellbeing of the citizenry.
At nearly 53 years of independence, we cannot fathom why it has become difficult for the nation to provide a workable public water system. Nigerians ought not to rely on self-help to provide water for their domestic and even agricultural needs. But because of the epileptic state of public water systems, they have been forced to resort to, initially digging of wells but now, what is in vogue is borehole digging – considered to be better than the former.
Yet, the nation is not a desert but one blessed with abundance of big rivers that could be officially deployed for human consumption. The implications of this negative borehole digging fad are enormous and, as Ochekpe herself puts it: ‘…underground water is linked, and if there is contamination in one borehole, it will contaminate other boreholes within the area, with devastating effects on human health.’
The problem of poor provision of water, like what is happening to the power sector, is one of misplaced priority. It is symptomatic of the recurring culture of systemic failure in the country. While a standardised Code of Practice is long overdue to curb indiscriminate drilling of boreholes, the best way to stop the trend and save the nation from environmental calamity is to make public water system work by governments.
