This is not the first time that concern about indiscriminate digging of a borehole would be raised, but this time around, the government is contemplating punitive measures. How far this can go is left for time to decide. ELEOJO IDACHABA writes on the position of FCDA authorities in this regard.
It was Mrs. Sarah Ochekpe, a former minister of water resources, who first raised the alarm in 2013, when she said the federal government was concerned about the indiscriminate digging of boreholes in the country, especially in Abuja; a development she said was responsible for the various incidents of earth movements being experienced in some parts of the territory. The alarm got to a heightening proportion when seismic reports indicated that a certain part of Ministers Hill in the Maitama District of the Territory witnessed some sorts of earth movements thereby sending jitters down the spines of residents.
Ochekpe had said, “The continuous drilling of boreholes for water may affect the earth structure and underground water supply in the future and to that extent, the incessant drilling of boreholes for water can no longer be tolerated.” That was almost 10 years ago; since then, nothing happened. Thereafter, the matter went into the cooler, but drilling continues unabated in many unapproved locations in the city and other parts of the country. Lately, it seems the government may revisit its stand on the matter owing to certain developments.
Deep-seated concerns
Just recently, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) started lamenting the increasing rate at which boreholes were being drilled indiscriminately in the territory.
This is even as the administration also vowed to prosecute any erring landlord that drills over 200 meters borehole on pedestrian walkways to the point of destroying the engineering design of the city.
The director, Department of Development Control, Muktar Galadima, stated this recently when he led officials from the department to monitor housing constructions in Guzape district of Abuja. That was a fortnight ago. On a particular site during the visit, five persons found working on a site where a borehole was indiscriminately dug were subsequently arrested.
Mukhtar used the opportunity to warn developers and landlords against destroying public properties. According to him, “The FCT administration would not hesitate to use relevant laws to prosecute violators. We woke up to see someone drilling a borehole on our pedestrian walkway; in fact, my heart is pained.
“This is serious damage to the environment. Definitely, we are going to prosecute him. That is why we are liaising with the Abuja Environmental Protection Board and other relevant agencies to prosecute the offenders. This is vandalism.”
He warned further, “This is an opportunity for me to warn other developers that we would not accept this from any developer. You have your property and you must obtain approval before you can drill a borehole wherever it is going to be.”
The irony of this is that the development is coming at a time when the government/authority of the territory cannot supply adequate and clean water to residents who only rely mostly on water vendors for their daily water needs.
Threats not panacea
However, in a sharp reaction to Galadima’s threat, a resident of Guzape who simply asked to be known as Madam Hannatu, told this reporter that residents should not be blamed for the proliferation of boreholes as that is the only alternative to sourcing for water in the country right now.
In a rhetorical question she asked, “Has the government provided water for residents? Is the Usman Dam serving everyone? Was that not supposed to be part of the structural design before allocations were given for the new districts? It is not about threatening people, but about the government’s failure to provide water. As long as new districts are coming up, there would be demand for water. For instance, if not through boreholes, how would all these buildings come up? I agree that there should not be indiscriminate digging of boreholes, but asking that one needs to get permission is what I don’t understand, not with their red-tapism in government ministries and departments.”
Govt’s culpability
On his part, a borehole drilling engineer, Emeka Osai, told Blueprint Weekend that under normal circumstances, approvals needed to be sought before anyone could drill over 200 metres underground for anything.
He, however, said, “But that is where everything works perfectly. In Nigeria where everyone provides almost everything for themselves, such laws cannot apply. Applying such laws shows that the government is not even aware of its social responsibilities to the people. Personally, I don’t believe that boreholes can cause earth movements and earthquakes. Make the dams work and people would stop digging boreholes, but as long as new districts are springing up without water from the government, the government would continue to make noise over this, but the trend would continue.”
Expert admonitions
A geo-scientist, Dr. Manaja Mijinyawa, in his take, however, advised that borehole drillers should always seek experts’ advice before drilling boreholes. According to Mijinyawa, there is a need for government agencies and private developers to involve specialists like hydro-geologists, geoscientists, whenever there is any water project anywhere in the country.
He noted that indiscriminate drilling of boreholes has adverse effects, not only on the ground water, but can also cause environmental degradation and water depletion.
“There are a lot of unprofessional activities in the business of water drilling. They drill indiscriminately without taking into consideration the involvement of geo-scientists when drilling.
“Whenever they find water at a certain position on the ground, they will say they have reached a level of water without taking into consideration the geological formation,” he said.
Investigations by Blueprint Weekend revealed that at the moment, the underground pipe laid by FCT Water Board from Usman Dam in Ushafa is currently providing potable water for many residents of the city especially along Ushafa-Dutse-Dawaki up to Gwarimpa and Maitama areas.
A resident of Dawaki, a community sandwiched between Dutse and Gwarimpa, Silas Duniya, who spoke with this reporter, heaved a sigh of relief, saying the recent approval of the water board to link communities along the pipeline areas has helped to overcome the constant water problem being encountered especially when there is prolong power outage.
“Early this year, the board began to construct water vending points around communities bothering the pipelines for one to fetch water. As it is, anyone can fetch water there as against when we relied only on water vendors called Mai ruwa for daily water needs. It’s a good development, but I don’t know if this applies to other communities in the city.”
This reporter gathered that around Dutse areas equally reveals that, to a greater extent, the problem of water shortage has been considerably reduced, but many families still rely on boreholes for their daily water needs.
Collins Uzoma, a resident of Obasanjo Road along Bwari expressway told Blueprint Weekend that even if the FCT Water Board decides to connect the settlement with water, he would stick to his borehole. He said this is because of the high monthly bill from the board.
Redundant agencies
Ordinarily, water-related matters should not be a problem in Nigeria judging from the ecological advantage the country has with regards to water beds, unlike some countries in the northern part of the continent. This is beside the existence of several bodies with responsibilities for water management even though many of them appear redundant.
These include: Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) whose mandate is water resources (groundwater and surface water) assessment of the country, its quantity, quality, availability and distribution in time and space, Nigeria Integrated Water Resources Management Commission (NIWRMC) that is responsible for the regulation of water use and allocation state Ministries of Water Resources and their Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agencies (RUWATSSAN) responsible for provision of water to various states, National Water Resources Institute, a parastatal of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources which has the responsibility for training, research and data management relating to water in general, River Basin Development Authorities, which are also parastatal of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources involved in the provision of water supply to rural environments within their catchments.
If all of these agencies/MDAs are alive to their responsibilities, water shortage would be a thing of the past and there would be little or no need for alternative water sources in the form of drilling.
