Thunder fire the person who is dissuading citizens from digging boreholes! . It's not as if they enjoy doing so. They say that Omole has not had tap water for three weeks. ONLY THREE WEEKS?! . I have lived in Okota for 20years. I cannot dream of one litre of water from the public supply. A commentator pointed out that there is water in abundance 24/7 in Mushin. If I try to point out the differential in the demographics of Mushin and Okota, they will accuse me of Hate Speech. So, I will not.
The fact is that is that very many parts of the Lagos megalopolis lack potable water with negative impact on health, human productivity etc. No group is spared. Our various administrations, (state & federal), have failed to recognize that there must be a concerted, long-term, sustained and global/regional plan to tackle the issue of water availability. Currently we take the trouble to source a not-very-useful product like petrol from across the globe and pipe it hundreds of kilometers to reach the consumer. Why not water? Others do it. Until we have major water projects where with huge man-made aqueducts in the model of the Great Libyan River, we will still be here scratching our heads twenty years hence. Think of 4m diameter systems, 150 - 400km long! Yes, it's huge! Think of the Electrical Power that will make it work. Wahala dey-o!
Or if we prefer to search far, why not look at the Chinese template. Enlightened individuals are already aware of the California model resulting in a multibillion dollar agriculture industry. You move water from where you have excess of it to where it is needed. Our current irrigation effort for agriculture has barely scratched the surface of national need.
This will then be followed by the engineering of distribution with safety in mind to obviate incidence of contamination. Meanwhile our youth remain unemployed. It is a simple step to analyze the impact on the overburdened health system and infrastructure. There is so much work to be done.
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