By Esther David
Residents of the Sapati community in Ilorin, Kwara State, have lamented low yield of underground water sources in the area, which would have served as an alternative source of poor public water supply.
A female resident said that: ‘digging a well is very challenging in this area because no matter how deep it is, it doesn’t bring out water as expected. I was even planning on going for a borehole before I was notified by one of my neighbours that I should not waste my time and money because it won’t yield anything”.
Corroborating, Mr Alade Adeolu, a Poultry farm staff, said, ‘we have three different boreholes in the poultry compound, but none is bringing out water; different borehole diggers were invited, but they couldn’t get water. At first, we thought that maybe the first two companies invited to dig boreholes were not competent before concluding that there was low groundwater in the area.
This has forced the poultry farm to ‘buy water from tankers to run the poultry effectively and maintain sanitation in the society’. ‘If we don’t make that sacrifice of buying water, it might cause chaos in the society as neighbours will be complaining about the bad odour that comes from the poultry, since these fowls always defecate’ Mr Adeolu explained that they do buy a tank of water of 6000 liters at the rate of Eleven thousand naira ( #11,000).
The Kwara State Water Corporation, the public water utility is presently experiencing operational challenges, which affects its capacity to supply water to most consumers in the state.
Shifau, a housewife said many houses do have access to adequate water to maintain household hygiene: ‘the water scarcity in this area is so tiring. Tap water is yet to find its way here because this is a new area.
The Public Relations Officer of Kwara State Water Corporation, when contacted, Mr Segun Oke appealed to the community to bear with the corporation, saying plans are in the pipeline to improve public water supply.
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