Water scarcity: Complaints, commendations as Ondo shops for solution

HAKEEM GBADAMOSI writes on the experience of residents of parts of Ondo State with regard to access to potable water

Across the globe, water is a necessity in everyday life and its usefulness cannot be overemphasised. In Ondo State, though government has been trying to ensure there is water supply to various homes, residents have continued to lament over lack of potable water in the town and other major areas in the state.

The Owena Multipurpose Dam project in Igbaraoke, Ifedore Local Government Area of the state, which is expected to supply water to the six local government areas in the central senatorial district of the state has been abandoned by successive governments.

The Federal Government embarked on the rehabilitation of the water dam in 2008 to provide drinkable water for the people of the state. However, despite spending billions of naira on the project, it has failed to produce the desired results.

A resident of Akure community, Waleola Adeyeye, while speaking with Sunday Tribune, lamented that the last time water was supplied to homes in the state capital was during the military era.

He said; “we have been hearing of government spending billions of naira on water projects with no results. In this community, we decided to sink a borehole to provide water for ourselves, but it is always a tug of war during the dry season. We are now planning to sink two or three more boreholes so that they can serve us better.

“Water supply is no longer a duty of government, but they have turned water projects to a veritable avenue to siphon public money.”

Also, a resident of Igoba in Akure North Local Government Area of the state, Mrs. Iyabode Ilesanmi, who expressed disappointment over the inability of government to provide drinkable water, said there was no time the residents of the area enjoyed water supply from the government.

She added that individual households had resorted to sinking boreholes or digging wells as their source of water supply, while they bought water from tanker vendors during the dry season.

When Sunday Tribune visited the state Water Corporation in Alagbaka area of the state capital to find out why water supply to most homes in the state has become mirage, an official of the corporation who spoke with our reporter explained that there was no ongoing project on water supply in the state.

He disclosed that the only project “we can say that is ongoing is the Owena Multipurpose Dam with the credit support from a development agency to the tune of $57 million to cover the improvement of 50 per cent water supply to the Southern part of Akure city and the ongoing discussion with Africa Development Bank (AfDB) for an additional loan of $10 million to cover the remaining 50 per cent as well as take care of the adjoining satellite towns.

“Only the soft components, which include the training of personnel and procurement, have started. We expect that the hard core components like the engineering works on site and movement to site will commence by the end of 2020. We are told that test running of water supply cannot be earlier than 2023.”

The official maintained that there was concentration on borehole for the supply of portable water in the urban area by the Water Corporation and the Rural Water Supply Agency (RUWASA), adding that “for now, nothing is going on over urban water supply.”

He, however, said the state government was trying its best, adding that the main obstacle was that the state had no money to carry out many projects. He also expressed the belief that only the Federal Government’s assistance could make the dream of sustainable water supply realisable.

But in another development, the people of Ayede Ogbese in Akure North Local Government Area of the state commended the state governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, in the area of water provision in the communities. They noted that the current administration had embarked on remarkable projects, following a revelation that the percentage of public water supply in the state was less than four.

A government official told Sunday Tribune that the scheme was part of the state government’s efforts aimed at meeting the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) by 2030. He added that the water scheme was executed by the RUWASSA to take care of the water need of the people of Ayede Ogbese and its environs.

Speaking on the Ayede Ogbese, Akeredolu, during the project inauguration, said the water scheme was designed to have five kilometres reticulation and distribution network with a storage tank of 50 million litre capacity that would discharge, at full capacity, twice a day, with 100 public standpipes, 200 fetching points and that one fetching point would serve 50 people.

The governor said: “As part of our avowed commitment to improving the wellbeing of our people, our administration embarked upon a two-prong approach to revitalise Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) scheme in Ondo State with special focus on rural and urban water supply utilising slightly different strategies.

“We, therefore, came up with Kamomi Concept which has brought on board the ongoing rehabilitation of all non-functional boreholes.

“A major component of Kamomi which is the expansion of new water facilities to increase water access is what we are commissioning today.”

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Water palaver in coastal areas

The situation is not different in the coastal areas of the state where the people who lived on water cannot boast of potable drinking water in the area.

The people of the area walk for miles to get treated drinking water. The N4 billion water project initiated by the immediate-past administration in the state in Aboto area has been described as waste by the people of the area.

The people of the area in Ilaje Local Government Area said they have waited endlessly for the water project to take off.

Thus, the state chairman of Senior Staff Association of Statutory Corporations and Government owned Companies (SSASCGOC) Mr. Ola Amure, seemed justified when he raised the alarm over imminent water scarcity in the state, calling on the state government and commissioner in charge to act.

Amure, in a recent statement, said water scarcity loomed in the state, as the dry season approached, adding that there was no part of the state where the people were getting treated water supply from the state water corporation, since the last three years.

He stated that the people of the state had been asking questions over the state of water supply, wondering “whether there is still the Ondo State Water Corporation in existence.”

The statement read that; “we also observed that sales points at Akure Area Office of the corporation, Ukere and some other places have stopped three months ago on the orders of the newly appointed Commissioner for Water Resources, Mrs Yetunde Adeyanju.”

Amure, who, however, commended the state governor for the creation of Ministry of Water Resources, Public Sanitation and Hygiene, appealed to the commissioner in charge of the ministry to sit up and work with the union to ensure adequate supply of potable water to people in all parts of the state.

He lamented that the commissioner had not been accessible to workers of the corporation who could help to chart a way out of the water scarcity ravishing the land.

Nevertheless, a staff of the corporation who spoke with Sunday Tribune in confidence said that the water scarcity being experienced now might remain till 2023 when the interventions of French Development Agency (AFD) and AfDB through the loan to complete Owena Multipurpose Dam might have been achieved.

He said “we are begging to see if the state government can release its own 10 per cent counterpart fund for smooth running of the intervention. The government has failed to do the needful.”