A Glimpse into Osun Borehole Project

By Adenitan Akinola

In a bid to make water available for it’s people, in January this year, the Osun state government announced the construction of a borehole per ward across the three hundred and thirty two wards in the state.

The government followed up in July by purchasing electric generators of equal quantity to ensure that the boreholes run without power hiccups.

However, 8 months down the line, Radio Nigeria correspondent who went round some of the project locations present a report that much need to be done to make them serve the people effectively.

Some of the locations visited included wards 2, 6,14 in Olorunda local government and ward 5 in Osogbo local government.

Also visited is Ejigbo and Eyindi wards in Ila Orangun as well as ward 7 in Irewole local government.

Reports from some residents in the locations revealed that the boreholes have been completed, however most of them did not work beyond the day the installed pumping machines were tested.

Some of the residents of the affected areas including Mr Aderemi Olawuyi from Eyindi ward in Ila Orangun and Deji Ibrahim from Ward 5 Irewole confirmed the development.

Mr Deji Ibrahim told Radio Nigeria that, “Since the borehole was tested here, there’s not been electricity to power it. When they even brought generator, nobody is fueling it. As you can see, there is nobody fetching water now and this is 9am.on Saturday”.

This is the situation in Ward 5 Olorunda Local Government, Wards 2, 6 and 14 of Osogbo Local Government, among many others across the State.

The Coalition of Civil Societies organization in the state under the umbrella body, the Mastermind in the August edition of it’s state of the state press conference attested to the poor handling and delivery of the borehole project

Addressing newsmen in Osogbo, the Coordinator of the Mastermind, Professor Wasiu Oyedokun-Alli pointed out that “boreholes were sunk and installed, installations were tested, but since that day, more than 2 months ago, no drop of water had come out of the boreholes the Osun State.”

“we reported to you our visit to numerous locations of the boreholes and discovered that, although government has informed the State’s people through several press releases and interviews that the boreholes were now completed and in service, majority of the boreholes are still not functional.”

The group also wondered why the state government has failed to make public the cost of each unit of the borehole, the bidding and award process as well as the contactors that did the job.

Professor Oyedokun-Alli urged the state government, through its relevant offices to get into action immediately, to ensure that the boreholes were made functional for the people of the state, noting that they could not just stand as decorations scattered around the corners of the state without serving the people.

“Government must also ensure that it does proper needs assessment of intended projects before embarking on them. This is to ensure that the state does not continue to execute projects that are not in tandem with new developmental realities and needs of the societies that make up the state. Projects should not be projects for projects sake, but for needs sake.”

Efforts to get government officials, particularly the Commissioner for water resources, Mr Sunday Oroniyi to speak on the matter was not successful, however, in a statement by the spokesperson to the Governor, Mallam Olawale Rasheed, the state government maintained that it was already rehabilitating water works in major towns of the state while the 332 boreholes are emergency intervention projects to address acute water shortage in the state.

Mallam Rasheed who insisted that two million people are already accessing water supplies across the 332 political wards in the state according to global standards, noted that rehabilitation of water works at Ede, Iwo, Osogbo, Ekende and others are also ongoing.

“Governor Adeleke adopted two approaches namely the short term interventions which are the boreholes and the medium, and long term interventions which include the rehabilitation of water works. Both are ongoing simultaneously.”

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