In 2016, four years to be exact, the Hope Spring Water Charity organisation repared and upgraded a damaged borehole for the people of Kongbari community in Ilorin, the Kwara State Capital, Nigeria.
The borehole was a hand pump and in a complete state of despair before the Hope Spring Water Charity’s kind intervention which apparently transformed the hitherto non functional hand pump borehole to a functional motorized one with provision of three big reserve tanks.
Since then, the people of the community, with the population of over 100 households, have been enjoying access to portable water which gives a clear departure from stress of walking long killometers daily in search of water for house chores.
A visit to the site of the project on Sunday (February 9 ,2020) by Hope Spring Water Charity gave an impresive insight into how the project has been handling by the community and the expansion of the project to serve them better and longer.
A community leader at Sumaila Compound where the project is situated, Mallam Saka Iyanda, was full of praises to Hope Spring for coming to their rescue four years ago when all hopes seemed to have lost as regards access to drinkable water in the area.
Speaking with Hope Spring representatives at the community, the community leader said the project was a dream come true for them as their lives have changed significantly following the upgrade of the borehole.
He said the commujisty has taken it upon itself to buy generating set to pump the water each time thete is power faliure in the community.
This effort, according to him, has given them ample opportunity to fetch water from morning till night every time of the day irrespective of whether there is electricity or not.
“We members of the community have unanimously devised a method of generating little revenue from the borehole by selling 250 liters of water at rate of N50 only to people. Part of the money we realized was used to buy new generator at rate of N85,000” he said.
Also speaking, a youth leader in the community, Mr Idris Alooma said the community has been maintaining the borehole by itself through constant repare, pointing out that they pay for workmanship and other general maintenance any time the need arises.
In his comment, the community Project Supervisor, Comrade Lukman Ahmed said the proper maintenance and purchase of a new generator do not only improve the service of the borehole but also give the community the opportunity to expand the service capacity of the borehole.
He said the community has begun connecting each household with the borehole, saying that those who had done the reticulation have been enjoying free flow of water in their private homes.
A member of the Hope Spring Board of Trustee (BOT), Mr Mubarak Oladosu commended the host community for making Hope Spring pride by taking proper care of the water project done for them some years back.
Oladosu also called on all benefitting communities to emulate Sumaila Compound’s initiave of sustaining the project so as to justify the purpose for which the Hope Springs Charity provided them with water project to make life better for them.
