Nigeria’s borehole wahala
The challenge of urbanization heightens the issue of water supply in relation to available water quantity and quality. Consequently, there is an alarming gap between consumption and potentially available safe water resource in Nigeria. This has led to the multiplicity of water borehole facilities located in the urban area of Nigeria without recourse to the environmental impact, land use, urban population growth, and land readjustment.
Several successive governments in Nigeria at the Federal, state and local levels have made frantic efforts to provide portable and adequate water supply to its citizen. These strides of water supply services, where they exist are unreliable, and not sustainable because of obvious difficulties in management. Following the adoption of the National Water Supply and Sanitation Policy in January 2000, the Nigerian Government considered the provision of water supply services to be the domain of the Federal, State and Local governments. However, the public sector has not been successful in meeting more than a small portion of the demand for water by residential and commercial users. Services are in critically short supply. For example, out of the 85 million people living in urban and semi-urban areas, more than half have no reasonable access to reliable water supply (FMWR, 2000).
The increasing rate of population growth, rising demands for food and cash crops, increasing urbanization and rising standards of living represent major factors for shortage in the water supply. Following the inability of government at various levels to provide portable and accessible quality water, citizens have resorted to providing private borehole water for both domestic and agricultural usage within the urban cities. The indiscriminate location of these water boreholes without recourse to future development and other environmental considerations poses a big environmental threat to the country. The multiplicity of borehole water facilities by private individuals and corporate bodies also undermines the stability of the earth crust thereby exposing the citizens to potential crustal changes and phenomena that has great damaging effect.
Water from rainfalls is majorly absorbed into the ground and also by plant nutrients. The remaining that is not used by plants moves downward through pores and spaces in the rock until it reaches a dense layer of rock. The water trapped below the ground in the pores and spaces above the dense rock barrier is called the groundwater or aquifer, and this is the water we get when we drill wells. The removal of water in its natural state through geo-drilling activities creates a disequilibrium of the earth crust which in turn can lead to land subsidence. This is one of the major environmental effects that is associated with the multiplicity of borehole facilities. Over time, as more water is removed from the area, the ground drops and creates a cone. Land subsidence can lead to many problems, including changes in elevation, damage to structures such as storm drains, sanitary sewers, roads, railroads, canals, levees and bridges; structural damage to public and private buildings, and damages to wells. Most commonly, though, subsidence is known for causing an increase in the potential for flooding.
The need to adhere to safety and development control procedure when planning and constructing water boreholes to avoid contamination and pollution for groundwater becomes necessary in the light of issues of citing water borehole facilities. This development can be compounded when a badly constructed facility (water borehole) can pose a danger not only to the owner but also to adjoining neighbours as most often there are no checks except things go wrong. To this end, it becomes imperative to consider the following in the course of construction and citing of water borehole facilities in urban and semi-urban areas
— Prevailing Regulatory Controls and Procedure
— The issues of Health Safety and Environment
— The effect of leaking sewers, effluent disposal from septic tanks
— Chemical storage, handling and accidental spillages of fuels and associated liquids.
