Borehole digging and the attendant health risks
The inability of approximately 60 million Nigerians to access portable water, inclusive of government’s inefficient water supply system, has resulted in homes resorting to digging their own boreholes in order to get some form of clean water.
This practice of digging boreholes which has also become rather indiscriminate, has come with several risks experts say, which if left unchecked, will defeat the purpose of digging the boreholes in the first instance.
In digging boreholes, lack of attention to details, and in other instances, spacing requirements have resulted in boreholes being dug at inappropriate proximity with Soak away pits.
“If a borehole is too close to a soak away there must be a leakage,” said Taiwo Ajayi, a professor of Geology at Obafemi Awolowo University.
Based on this, he averred there must be a minimum distance of 10 metres from the borehole, away from the septic tank. This he said is subject to meeting the ministry of environment or a geologist to provide guidance on nature of the environment before digging the borehole. He insists that the quality of materials used must be top notch to avoid contamination which can lead to loss of lives.
“If the soil is sandy the only thing to do is that you go deeper and blind all the upper area, from the top soil to the rock. You must avoid the possibility of any leakage to your borehole; you must bind it thoroughly so that there are no perforations.”
According to John Owo, CEO, Cooha Water Technologies Limited, “The National Agency for Food Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) the normal standard requires 10 metres that is 33 feet away from the septic tank and also the civil engineers have said the same thing. Sometimes the situation can change in an instance where we have a cavity due to issues in the ground where there is a mixture of the water from the soak away trying to penetrate the bore hole.”
“If there is no space of 10 metres you can at least give up to 7 to 8 metres, and if there’s a space at the back of your building depending on the side your engineer wants to site the bore hole, use 4 square or 10 by 5 or it can probably be 15 by 5 if in a straight form, depending on where the space is.” Owo adds.
Digging of boreholes has become an industry on its own, as people have to provide their own water owing to inefficient circulation of public water supplies.
As BusinessDay reports have highlighted, the existing poor and inadequate service delivery in the water sector in Nigeria has exacerbated major incidences of severe general poverty and wide scale impairment of public health through the invasion of bad water-caused diseases. Last year, Enugu state reported 76 deaths due to a cholera outbreak, and many more go unreported, especially in rural areas.
The planning of water resources, its provision and management are of very crucial importance, not only for development purposes but also a matter of social good and national security.
While governments at state and federal levels continue budgeting large sums of money for water every year, people also keep digging boreholes and it becomes worrisome where the impact of government’s billions are going into.
TIAMIYU ADIO