By Ayobami Ife, Abeokuta
Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has raised alarm against water borehole drillings in homes, declaring that repercussions of such could be devastating.
Obasanjo lamented that the incessant construction of boreholes particularly in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital was as a result of failure of subsequent administrations to sustain the Oyan Dam project embarked on by his military administration in 1977.
In a statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Kehinde Akinyemi, Obasanjo gave this warning when management and staff of the Ogun-Osun River Basin Development Authority (O-ORDA), led by the Managing Director, Dr. Adedeji Ashiru visited him on the occasion of the World Water Day at the weekend.
The former President called for elimination of wastages of water resources, stressing that it would be impossible to achieve food sufficiency and security without effective water management.
He hinted that that due to the failure of the Dam project, the residents of Abeokuta embraced on digging of boreholes everywhere to source for water adding that this however comes with a repercussions that nobody for now may know how devastating it could be.
According to Obasanjo: “We can not de-emphasise the importance or usefulness of water to human life and this why we do say water has no enemy.
“This was why as Military Head of State in 1977 I realised that strategic water management must be part of our food sufficiency drives and food security and we created 11 River Basin including the Lake Chad.
“And what are we trying to achieve, if we have to only depend on rain fed agriculture, we shall definitely not get it right. Rain may come too early or too late, there may be droughts or flood all of which have telling effect on food production and security.
“So the first thing to do as part of measure designed to achieve food security is effective management of water for agriculture. All of the river basins therefore have facilities for irrigation to ensure all year round farming.”
Obasanjo said that the Oyan Dam was actually created to generate power and water for the residents of Ogun and Lagos State but sadly, 48 years after it has not lived up to the reasons why it was constructed.
The former President said that the dam is said to have the capacity to generate 9 Megawatts saying that if this dam could be made to generate such Megawatts of electricity it would have a profound impact in boosting power supply to the people and help reduce the challenge of inadequate power supply in the country.
He adds: “Oyan Dam was built to supply water for Abeokuta and Lagos but it has been neglected and ignored just like the turbine for the power supply.
“The water supply is not there for Abeokuta and we have rather continued to dig holes everywhere causing the water level to go down and down, that will have repercussions in the future, how long we shall have it I dont know but the geologist can do there job and tell us how fast that repercussions will come”.
Speaking earlier, the MD of O-ORBDA, Dr Ashiru said that they have decided to pay the former President a visit and salute him for his foresight which made him to create the 11 river basins 48 years ago.
He disclosed that the vision for effective water management and sustainability which Obasanjo has had since 1977 was just caught by the United Nations about 10 years ago while talking about Sustainable Development Goal six which bothers on sanitation and clean water.
Ashiru said that his leadership since assumptions have also been working round the clock to ensure that the vision of the founding fathers for the river basins which is to primarily boost agricultural production, controls flooding among others are realised
The OORBDA boss said that the vision of President Bola Tinubu is to also ensure that these river basins are put to good use such that they play very active roles in the administration’s food security drives.
He revealed that for last year the federal government supported the Ogun-Osun River Basin to embark on construction of seven dams across the Southwest and has also for the year 2025 made a budgetary allocation of N45bn for the agency to drive irrigation farming.
