The Association of Professional Women in Engineering of Nigeria (APWEN) has urged people to carry out geophysical survey when drilling ground water to ensure access to quality water.
The Chairman, APWEN, Mrs Charity Ojobo, gave this advice during the commemoration of the 2022 World Water Day on Tuesday in Abuja, organised by the Ministry of Water Resources.
Ojobo said that people could not be stopped from drilling boreholes because water was a necessary resource that every household or industries needed.
She however advised that care should be taken to ensure that due diligence was done in carrying out geophysical survey.
“We cannot stop somebody from drilling water, what our advice is that make sure you do your geophysical survey, and get the actual depth that you need to drill.
“If you must drill, you should drill at the upstream for example, if you have your land, find out where you want to locate your septic tank and suck away and where you are locating your borehole.
“Ensure they are not close by because these are the type of things that affect this ground water that we are talking about, even after drilling ensure that pupping test is done to ascertain that that borehole is serviceable.
“And that it will give you the water that you need depending on whether it is for household or industrial use,’’ Ojobo said.
Speaking on the importance and indispensability of ground water, Ojobo said ground water provides about 40 per cent of the water “that man uses and has the quality of purity’’.
“Like the name goes, before you can access it, you have to drill it and when you drill, you pass some aquifers, you break the rock and you get it and you know that this water is pure.
“About 40 per cent of the water we use is ground water, the rest is sea which is not as pure and because it is pure, it is more reliable because of the process of bringing it out.
“It may not need so much treatment, the treatment you need to do is your water quality treatment to ensure to check the hardness of the water and the rest of them.’’
Ojobo said people should learn how to conserve and manage water, adding that about 2.2 billion people in the world do not have access to portable water.
She said in order to ensure that students learned about conservation and preservation of water, the association engaged 36 FCT Junior and Secondary Schools in a competition showcasing the most effective way of conserving water.
According to her, out of the 36 schools, two schools came out tops. They are Glisten International Academy, Jabi, for private schools, and Government Day School, Dutse Alhaji for government secondary.
“Government Day School Dutse Alhaji for government secondary won the competition and was given an award by the association.
“We decided to engage science schools in FCT in the competition to harness the in-built creativity in them being an engineering organisation one of our focuses is to bring in more of these young ones into engineering.
“Knowing that engineers are life savers and engineers are more interested in ensuring that this world is a better place we thought that the best way to do it is to bring out that creativity in them.
“Let them understand that they are natural re-creators, naturally meant to do things that will make the society to move forward. So we involve them in activity that will bring out that capacity in them.’’
The association also presented an award to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources, Mrs Esther Walson-Jack, known as `Water Access Award’.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the World Water Day celebration started in 1993, marked on March 22, worldwide.
It is about focusing on the importance of water and upholding the sustainable management of freshwater resources. (NAN)