By Richard Ilesanmi

Water they say is life. In fact, according to a school of thought, while man can live without food for 40 days, hardly can he survive without water for just three days because findings show that 70% of our body composition is made up of water.

Another school of thought even believes that after Jesus Christ (the Son of God) and the holy Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him), whoever gives you water is your saviour.

These thoughts then underscore the necessity and relevance of water to the existence of mankind. Most profoundly is the fact that drinkable water guarantees a healthy living.

However, the scarcity of this all important necessity of life has, over the years, dealt a big blow on rural dwellers in Ondo state with no feasible solution coming so soon.

Reasons for this are not far to see.
During my visit to most rural communities in the state, I found out that 90% of water facilities in the over 3,256 communities that make up the state were moribund, with little or no efforts from successive administrations to revive them.

For instance at Iboropa in Akoko north east local government, I discovered that the community had eleven water facilities but only one was serving a community of about 5000 people. The remaining ten according to residents had been in relics for about six years.

Sadly, the situation forced them to be waking up in the dangerous hours of the night to queue up at the only borehole serving the entire community. Even their gathering there always end up in a free-for-all because of the struggle to get water so that they could proceed to their farms. This was also the situation at Ise and other localities in the council.

In all the communities I visited, their inhabitants explained that they resorted to trekking long distances in search of any water they considered drinkable not even minding the health implications because their water facilities were on their deathbed.

Most worrisome was even the substantial amount of money some of them spent on daily basis to get water, either for personal or commercial use.

For instance, the situation I met at Iyere in Owo local government area was not heartwarming. Some dwellers, especially food vendors said that they were paying through their noses to get water for use.

Madam Animat Omotunmise, a pap seller and Mrs Elizabeth Doluwamu, a food vendor told me in the course of my visit to the community that they spent substantial amount of their daily income to pay their water suppliers from Owo, the headquarters of the council.

Madam Omotunmise said: “Everyday, I spend close to #700 on water. #400 in the morning and #300 in the evening because as a pap seller, I need a lot of water for my business because if your pap is not clean or neat, people will not buy it. I must confess that the situation was draining my daily income”.

Mrs Owotunmise’s case clearly paints the picture of the water situation in all the rural communities in the state before the Oluwarotimi Akeredolu’s government came on board in Ondo state.

Aware of this problem and determined to nip it in the bud, the governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu on assumption of office woke the sleeping State Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency, RUWASSA, an agency saddled with the responsibility of providing clean water for rural dwellers in the state.

Follow up to this was the appointment of Mrs Yetunde Adeyanju, a woman with remarkable track record of success in any duty assigned to her on the 5th of March, 2018 to head the agency.

Having repositioned the agency for efficient service delivery, the governor gave the agency a marching order to take inventory, to evaluate and to carry out the NEEDS assessment of existing water facilities in the state with a view to addressing the age long lack of access to safe drinking water that was endemic in the state.

Part of the mandate was to carry out on-the-spot remedial and technical solutions on the water facilities that could be immediately repaired.

Sequel to this order, the chairman of the agency. Mrs Adeyanju summoned her lieutenants in the agency who are civil servants to map out effective strategies for prosecuting the assignment. The outcome of their After their intensive strategic planning and engagement was Water-for-All programme code named, “KAMOMI AKETI WATER SCHEME” which kicked off at Ijare in Ifedore government area of the state on the 12th of March, 2018.

Their first achievement in the community was the revival of the borehole on the premises of St David’s CAC Primary School, Ijare which residents told me had stopped running for over three years. After intensive work on the facility, the agency’s team of engineers succeeded in bringing the borehole back to life.

The team then moved to other communities in the council area and after weeks of intensive work, the result was remarkable. Today in Ifedore local government area, our handwriting is also boldly written on the walls of Igbaraoke, Ipogun, Ibuji, Isarun ikota, Ijare and other towns and villages of how the programme is having tremendous impact in the council.

Then came the turn of Owo local government, and the first community to benefit was Uso where four out of the 18 boreholes in the ancient town were functioning.

In fact, the traditional ruler of the community, Oba Ademola Oyingbade who first received the Kamomi team rehabilitation team led by Mrs Yetunde Adeyanju in his palace told his august visitors that his people have, over the years, had a bitter taste of acute water scarcity with no effort from successive administrations in the state to solve the problem.

So when Mrs Adeyanju briefed he monarch that they were in the community on the instruction of Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu to solve the challenge of access to water potable in Uso, the traditional ruler was full of appreciation to the state government for coming to their aid.

The team wasted no time in fixing a number of non-functional hand pump boreholes in the community. Joyfully today, the intervention has re-written the story of a people whose major headache was lack of access to potable water.

Another community that benefited in the council that have benefited greatly from the Kamomi Aketi Water for Life was Iyere where Madam Animat Omotunmise and Mrs Elizabeth Doluwamu whose situation I presented above were paying inhabitants were paying through their noses to get clean water.

In the community alone, no fewer than five repairable boreholes were immediately brought back to life by the Ondo state government through its Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency, RUWASSA to the excitement of Madam Omotunmise and others who would no longer spend their daily income on water. Also in the local government, Amurin, Emure-Ile, Ipele and other communities benefited from this water-for-all scheme.

Next was Ile Oluji/Okeigbo local government area where a number of towns and villages have equally benefited from the scheme. Okeigbo town, Oloruntele, Owode, Bamikemo, Usama, Abojupa 1&2, Kokowu and others are all beneficiaries. Lippanu, an agrarian settlement in the local government also had its own share of the water-for-all programme.

Ile-Oluji, the headquarters of the council was not passed-by in the water revolution programme. The boreholes on Oke Odunwo and the one around the town hall were resuscitated. Also brought to life were the ones located at Okerowo and Oke Otunba streets also in the town among others.

So far, seven local government areas have been captured since the take off of the scheme in March this year. They are: Ifedore, Owo, Ile-oluji/Okeigbo, Ese-Odo, Akoko North East, Idanre and presently, Akure North. Over 700 dysfunctional water facilities have so far been rehabilitated under the scheme.

The most profound is that government has taken further step by drilling new boreholes in areas worst hit by water crisis. And the area currently benefiting from this is Okemapo quarters of Alade in Idanre council area. The borehole which is expected to be completed soon will provide 20, 000 liters of water per day and it will be reticulated round the area.

Oke Agunla, a village in Akure north council area has also been given a new borehole to complement the five moribund ones rehabilitated in the village. Governor Akeredolu has also approved new boreholes at Iboropa, in Akoko north east local government and Araromi Obu in Odigbo local council.

The plight of the people they say are better imagined than experienced. But for most rural dwellers in Ondo state who in actual fact constitute 60% of the state’s population, reverse was, however, the case because they had, in no small measure, experienced acute water scarcity that almost grounded their lives to a halt.

However, since everything that has a beginning must surely have an ending, this ugly trend is being reversed by the present administration in the state with its uncommon commitment to achieving zero tolerance to lack of access to potable water and total eradication of water-borne diseases in the sunshine state.

One can unapologetically concludes that as the KAMOMI AKETI WATER SCHEME penetrates more towns and villages in Ondo state, a gradual end is near to lack of access to potable water in rural communities across the state. This is indeed a clear demonstration that the Akeredolu-led administration in Ondo state is committed to the wellbeing and sanitation of the people and by extengiving them life.

Richard, a Journalist writes from Akure.

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E-mail: richardilesanmia@gmail.com