An NGO, Action Against Hunger (AAH) Nigeria on Wednesday called for the regulation of drilling of boreholes in humanitarian settings in the north east.
Mr Rangaiya Kanaganathan, Head of Department, Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), of the organisation, made this call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja.
He said a study carried out in partnership with Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA), revealed severe groundwater depletion through indiscriminate drilling of boreholes in these areas.
He said if not resolved, could lead to acute shortage of water, and overall effect on livelihood of these communities.
He noted that the study revealed that since 1969, 30 meters of water has dropped and about 10 meters of water level reduction since the humanitarian conflict started in these region.
“We work with NIHSA to study and understand the effects of borehole drilling in the northeast by different NGOs and humanitarian organisations.
“We try to see what is happening through installation of some water tracking system that shows how the water table inside the groundwater.
“We installed over 25 boreholes with monitoring systems to get data in partnership with the University of Maiduguri to see what is happening with underground water.
“If you see the Lake Chad area, 50 years back it was full of water. Now, it is completely drying up, how do the people survive, not only agricultural purposes, but for drinking and livelihood.
“With all the data collected, since 1969, what we found was that 30 meters of water has dropped and since the humanitarian conflict started, about 10 meters of water level has dropped in these region’’.
He said when the water bill becomes operational, it would give guidelines to indiscriminate borehole drilling and also allow states to have a regulatory system for groundwater monitoring.
He said it was worrisome that indiscriminate borehole drilling had seen most of them drying up, saying a regulatory system should be made available.
On impact of climate change and agriculture, he said the organisation targeted a climate-resilience agriculture while intervening in its food security and agriculture projects.
“We try to see that all WASH projects been carried out does not have a negative impact on the environment, with climate change mainstreaming in all its projects.
“Our global headquarters have a policy of climate change that is strictly followed to latter, we also have partnership with ministries of water resources and environment in these states.
He noted that this partnership targeted the social protection pillars on environment, water conservation and water use, safe drilling of borehole to prevent contamination from the sewer system.
Kanaganathan said the needs were many in north eastern Nigeria.
“There is kidnapping, killings and others, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs believes that many needs are still underfunded, annual needs estimated is not really covered by government, donors, etc. It’s always underfunded,’’ he said.
He said the organisation would continue to support the most affected populations in Yobe, Borno, Jigawa, Kano, Sokoto and carry out cholera preparedness and response in Bauchi state.
“Our plan is to make sure that we do more work with beneficiaries and to have a rapid response to emergency settings, it can be displacement or focusing on cholera and any other communicable diseases.
“We want to have the capacity to do timely response, luckily, we have an ongoing programme in Bauchi and Sokoto on cholera rapid response, making sure that we have same level of beneficiaries reached as that of previous year. (NAN)
