Business Post Contributor
By Sodeinde Temidayo David
The Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), in order to fulfil its promise, donated a solar-powered borehole worth N5 million to the Gaba community in the Bwari Area Council of Abuja.
This project, according to NSE, is one of the deliverables it promised during the inauguration of its present Bwari Executive Committee of the branch, which is aimed to achieve within the two-year leadership.
Chairman of the Bwari branch of NSE, Ms Halimat Adediran, noted that in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, the branch undertook a study of the host communities and found that the community had no potable water.
According to her, Gaba and Igu communities were among the villages with a high population but had a stream which made them more likely to experience sicknesses and waterborne diseases.
“We also know that availability of portable clean water would also mitigate the spread of waterborne diseases and we know that we have to quickly put efforts together to sink a borehole for them, not just a borehole but solar-powered borehole to avoid incurring electricity bills,” she added.
Ms Adediran further explained that the project would have been abandoned as some individuals and corporate organisations they reached out to for support were not responding.
She said: “This project could have been delivered earlier if we had the support but at the end of the day, it was the branch itself that had it done, thanks to our senior colleagues who rose to the occasion and provided funds for the project completion.”
Continuing, she clarified that the branch initially estimated the sum of N2.5 million but as the project started and due to the price of building materials, “we expended five million for its completion.”
“We have delivered and handed the project over to the community and they have promised to own it, take care of it,” Ms Adediran added.
Speaking on behalf of the community, the youth leader, Mr Francis Musa Zakwoyi, expressed gratitude to the organisation.
Mr Zakwoyi, however, noted that the community will also want a modern senior secondary school that will address the educational agitation of their children within the community.
