By James Noah
For decades, residents of Mosan village in Ewekoro Local Government Area of Ogun State, had depended on the dirty looking Iwokomi stream as their only source of water.
But they got succour last weekend when a Non-Governmental Organisation, the Grassroots Aid Initiative (TGAI) donated an automatic water borehole to the village.
Mosan village is one of the numerous villages in Nigeria suffering from lack of portable water supply.
According to a report by an international development charity organisation, WaterAid in 2014, Nigeria received a total of $1.26 as water and sanitation aid between 2010-2012.
Despite this intervention, the report says 63.2 million Nigerians, representing 39 percent of the population do not have access to clean drinking water while 112.7 million, representing 69 percent of the population lack access to sanitation.
It is against this backdrop that the TGAI is committed to the provision of clean drinking water to rural communities in the country.
The NGO also donated a brand new generator set for powering the borehole.
The Director of TGAI, Dr. Kehinde Kadiri while handing over the borehole facility to the Baale of the village, Chief Jamiu Oladiran, disclosed that, the NGO had visited over 21 communities in Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Lagos and Kwara States for various humanitarian projects.
The Borehole Donated To Mosan Community
According to her, the Mosan water project is the ninth borehole her organisation would be donating to rural areas in Southwest and North central in Nigeria in the last three years.
Kadiri explained that TGAI has been complementing the efforts of the government in the provision of portable water to rural communities, adding that this has helped in the fight against water related diseases such as cholera, typhoid fever, giardia and dysentery, among others.
Explaining the reason behind the gesture, Kadiri said “We observed that the government do not focus their attention on the development of rural areas and we are aware that government cannot do it alone.
“We also observed that there is water inadequacy in most of the rural areas in the country, that is why we are coming in to assist these rural areas by providing clean sources of water for rural dwellers.
“Water is SDG six, that is water and sanitation. We also involve in SDG four, which is quality education because we have paid school fees of pupils and students in rural areas. We have organised seminars for them on and other related education and we have also made provisions for their welfare.
Mosan Community’s Only Source Of Water Before TGAI’s Intervention
Besides rural water projects, the NGO is also involved in other humanitarian projects, such as award of scholarships to indigent students, donation of learning materials, donation of school uniforms and sandals to students and building a house for an old woman, among others.
Kadiri said, “We have gone to villages to distribute cloth and food stuffs to them. In 2018, we also distributed over 1,500 shoes to school children.
“We realised that there are so many things that may affect education, students assimilation or doing very well in school and shoe is one of them. If you go to barefooted, you might be injured and this might affect the student’s academic performance”, she added.
Kadiri explained that their projects are funded through donations from well meaning Nigerians and even foreigners who contribute through a platform she described as “Social Media crowd funding.”
In his reaction, the Baale of Mosan village, Chief Jamiu Oladiran commended TGAI for the kind gesture, assuring that the borehole facility would be properly maintained.
Oladiran lamented that the village had been deprived of basic social amenities such as road, electricity, portable water, secondary school and appealed to the State government and other well meaning Nigerians to come to the aid of the village.
