Borehole: ‘Quality Control ‘ll Eradicate Quackery’

Director-General, Na
tional Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) Dr Ngeri Benebo,  has said that ground water quality control regulations will eradicate quackery in borehold drilling in Nigeria.
Benebo made the statement when officials of Association of Water Well drilling Rig Owners and Practitioners (AWDROP) paid her a ciurtesy visit in Abuja.
She said the law was meant to ensure that Nigerians had access to quality water and the process of getting the water without constituting a threat to the environment.
She said collaboration with AWDROP would further strengthen the agency’s capacity to enforce ground water regulations.
“We have the challenge of infrastructure in water and the question that people keep asking about borehole drilling is the quality of water being drilled.
“Another question is that where we are tapping from, the ‘aquifer’; we are not mindful of the land slide disaster that could come out.
“Now that some of you have realised that we are in a global village where sustainable practices are the order of the day, we must put heads together to ensure that our actions and inaction are controlled through regulations.
“The essence of the ground water quality control regulation is to control the menace of water accessibility through unhealthy practices because water is key to our survival.
“Our partnership with you would further expand our enforcement and monitoring in the industry to ensure compliance from the drillers,” Benebo said.
Earlier,  the National President of A WDROP, Mr Michael Ali, said that quacks had infiltrated the sector, which had threatened both the environment and the health of the people.
Ali pledged compliance with NESREA regulations in the drilling of water to ensure that Nigerians had access to quality water.
“We are aware that the impact of over 20,000 boreholes that have been drilled in this country has posed a threat to the environment due to the effect of the drilling machine to the environment.
He said the global acceptable distance between one borehole and another was 20m but that the rules were being undermined by quacks for business purposes.
In his remarks,  the Director of Environmental Quality Control in NESREA, Alhaji Umar Maiwada, said the agency would hold further meetings with the officials to discuss technical issues in the sub-sector.
Maiwada thanked officials of AWDROP for the visit, adding that the visit was at the right time when the agency was out to ensure that all environmental laws were enforced  effectively.
It would be recalled that NESREA had issued 30 environmental regulations, including ground water quality control.