Excited community members fetching water from the borehole
Sodiq Ojuroungbe
After enduring years of hardship and suffering from waterborne diseases caused by lack of access to clean water, five Ogun agrarian communities finally found relief as the Federal Government through the Border Communities Development Agency intervened and drilled a borehole for them.
A woman fetching from a dirty stream
This development followed the PUNCH Healthwise investigative report which shed light on the dire situation faced by the communities that include Asaa, Agbelepon, Agbele, Oke-Odo Ibore, and Lafenwa in the Yewa North Local Government Area of Ogun State.
Graphically illustrated was how residents of these rural communities embarked on an arduous journey across the border to the neighbouring Benin Republic in search of this essential amenity.
The report with the headline, “Dying by the Dozens: Ogun Communities’ Perilous Quest for Clean Water Across Benin Republic’s Borders’, was published on Sunday, April 14, 2024.
It was noted that the lack of potable water made residents of these five agrarian communities to fetch water from contaminated streams and ditches, or endure hours of travel across the border to fetch clean water.
The report also exposed the many deaths and health-related problems that arose due to the absence of clean water.
Before the report was published, efforts made by our reporter to get the reaction of the Ogun State government proved abortive as calls and messages were never responded to.
Two days after the report, the Border Development Agency, a Federal Government commission, reached out to PUNCH Healthwise, through an Assistant Chief Civil Engineer, Adedeji Adegboyega, expressing the agency’s desire to provide boreholes for the affected communities.
Days later, a director from the agency, Atarhe Akpohwaye, also reached out and agreed to visit the community with our correspondent on April 21, 2024.
On the agreed date, officials of the BCDA led by Akpohwaye and our correspondent journeyed to the affected communities.
The officials with some community members
A town hall meeting was held with the community members, during which they shared their ugly experiences over the years and their yearnings for a better life, among other needs.
Based on the visit, PUNCH Healthwise published another report where the agency promised to provide the communities with a borehole.
The townhall meeting
In the report, Akpohwaye, who is also the Special Adviser to the Executive Secretary, Dr Kelly Alabo, assured the residents of immediate response to their plights during the meeting.
She said the team came with an engineer, who would remain in the area until there is a permanent solution to the water crisis.
Akpohwaye explained that the communities fall under the areas covered by the agency, and which are meant to be provided with basic amenities like water.
While stressing that the visit was necessitated by the PUNCH Healthwise report, she told residents of the communities that the Executive Secretary mandated the team to do everything possible to bring succour to them.
She explained, “The new ES is passionate about border communities and how we can improve support for them.
“Immediately he saw this report done by the PUNCH Healthwise, he directed us to come here and mandated us to provide an everlasting solution to it. We are here to make sure you have access to clean water and also ensure this becomes a thing of the past.”
A few days after the meeting, one of the BCDA officials, Adedeji Adegboyega reached out to PUNCH Healthwise to say that a drilling machine had been dispatched to Asaa for the borehole project.
Being the overseeing officer of the borehole project, he had to remain there and was in touch with our correspondent, providing updates about the progress and challenges encountered during the process of drilling to access water.
On May 30, 2024, the BCDA official informed PUNCH Healthwise that the project was completed and would be commissioned soon but was not specific about the date.
“For more than three weeks, we faced various hurdles and the team worked tirelessly to complete the job. Despite facing numerous challenges, including technical difficulties, we have been able to successfully drill the borehole for them.
“I am going to update you about the commissioning of the project, which will be coming up next week,” Adegboyega told our correspondent over the phone,” he quipped excitedly on the phone.
The borehole drilled by the Border Development Agency
To confirm this, PUNCH Healthwise contacted some residents on the phone and they confirmed that the borehole had been completed and thanked PUNCH for the role it played in attracting the Federal Government’s attention.
“The water is clean and working. We wouldn’t have this without the publication. Please continue to advocate for our other needs. Don’t worry about rumours; your publication has brought relief. We pray for your continued favour,” one of the residents, Temitope Zakiaus expressed in Yoruba over the phone.
Meanwhile, the Director General of the Agency, George Dakorinama in an interview with TVC on April 30, said the PUNCH Healthwise report led to the response from BCDA.
“About a week ago, we got a passionate plea and urgent request from the Asaa community. So, we have to intervene very quickly. It was a weekend when I sent my men there to ascertain what had happened.
“The report that came to us is that they were losing persons in dozens. People were dying by the day in these communities. We did our findings only to find out that these persons were dying because of cholera outbreak.
“We began to investigate what could have been the cause of the cholera outbreak and we found out that there is no potable water in the Asaa community and other border communities like Agbele, Agbelepon, and Lafenwa. We discovered that they depend on the neighbouring Benin Republic to get clean water, which is about five or six kilometres.
“I will say this came like an emergency, but irrespective of any budgetary things, we have to think outside the box to come up with a very speedy solution and as I speak, we have just mobilised a contractor to go done there and sink borehole for them.”
He explained that there was a lot of development deficit in over 3000 border communities across Nigeria, adding, “The communities are located at the gateway and fringes of the country. In terms of security, they are very key and important.”
Copyright PUNCH
All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH.
Contact: health_wise@punchng.com
The post Water from Benin: Border agency rescues Ogun communities after PUNCH Healthwise report appeared first on Healthwise.