This Kwara Community Survive on Single Borehole Amid Government Intervention
In Igbo Efon, a community in Yowere, Asa Local Government Area of Kwara state, acute water scarcity is a daily reality. Residents long relied on rivers and trekked about 10 kilometres in the dead of night to fetch water.
By around 4 or 5 a.m., our women would already be on their way to the river to fetch water for the day,Zakariyau Ajagbe, a resident of the community, said.
During the day, cattle graze around the area and drink from the same water source, leaving residents struggling to collect enough clean water for their domestic needs. For residents with limited resources, getting a drop of water became an exhausting test of endurance, consuming hours of their time and physical strength.
And for many women, multiple trips to the river proved so draining that making the journey twice in one day was nearly impossible. Sometimes the journey was too much for us, but we had no choice. We needed water for the family,said Ramota Jimoh, a local resident.
The struggle did not end at physical exhaustion. Fraudsters exploited the residents’ desperation; community members repeatedly contributed money for promised interventions, only to watch years pass without any solution. People claiming to represent non-governmental organisations or political parties approached residents to demand contributions to fast-track water projects. Driven by urgency, the community paid multiple times, yet no project ever materialised.
We paid several times because we were eager to see something done about the situation,said Jimoh Ishola, the Alangua of Igbo Efon. We believed the intervention would come, but after paying, nothing happened. We were left with the same problem.
Some civil society groups did try to spotlight the communitys plight. The Light for Less Privileged Foundation (LLPF) shared details of Igbo Efon’s water crisis on social media to attract philanthropic support. When the organisation visited the community last December, team members could not find drinking water for themselves.
We couldn’t see water to drink, and we were thirsty as a group,said Abubakar Yusuf, the organisations public relations officer. Yusuf explained that LLPF contacted other organisations for assistance, but the appeals yielded no results. We were not financially buoyant at the time we would have intervened, even though it aligns with our mission,he added.
For years, government support remained out of reach. Prior to this, there was nothing like government intervention in our community,said Kayode Ismael, a resident in his 60s.
The Era of Relief
Then, about two months ago, relief arrived.
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The Kwara state government, through the Ministry of Water Resources, installed a solar-powered borehole in the community. For residents who had spent years walking kilometres to a distant river, the borehole represents a significant shift. Clean water is now available closer to home.
Yet the new facility raises an urgent question: can one borehole serve a community of more than 500 people?
We thank the state for giving us this, but we want more because this is not sufficient for more than 500 people, let alone the larger surrounding community,Ismael said. The project brought relief, but it did not resolve the broader deficit.
Igbo Efon reflects a familiar development dilemma across rural Nigeria. A long-awaited public infrastructure arrives, but falls short of local demand. While the borehole offers practical relief, a single water point quickly strains under growing pressure, especially as people from neighbouring settlements also turn to it.
The community’s deficit extends well beyond water. Access to healthcare presents an equally urgent crisis. The nearest hospital sits far from Igbo Efon, and the local primary health centre lacks basic resources. The facility does not operate around the clock, and doctors and nurses rarely show up on a daily basis. Residents have nowhere to turn when medical emergencies occur outside working hours.
Ramota Jimoh, a nursing mother, explained that the problem often starts before a health worker even arrives. Medical personnel frequently get stranded at Mandala Junction while searching for a commercial motorcycle willing to make the 30-minute trip into the village.
Delays in accessing medical personnel have worsened some emergency cases, with some reportedly resulting in death,she said. When the local clinic cannot handle cases, patients must travel all the way to a hospital in Mandala, adding transport fares, distance, and critical delays to life-threatening emergencies.
Education presents another hurdle. Yowere hosts only one primary school, which sits far from Igbo Efon, and children seeking secondary education must leave the community entirely. Without reliable transport, the daily commute forces many young people to drop out.
Education remains a strong aspiration among young people in our community, but reaching a school is difficult,said Ahmed, a resident in his 20s. The existing primary school is about a 40-minute walk from some parts of the community, making basic education physically demanding for children.
The transition to secondary school proves even harsher. Pupils must travel to Budo-Tuntun, Alapa, or even Ilorin to continue their studies. For low-income households, daily transport fares are unsustainable. Without money for fares, children must trek long distances in harsh weather, leading many to abandon their education altogether.
The solar borehole is a welcome step, but it exposes the vast social gaps left unaddressed. It proves that change is possible, yet highlights the work that remains. More than 500 residents need a water network that reliably matches their daily demand. The primary health centre requires consistent staffing, medical supplies, and 24-hour emergency care. Children need accessible schools so that physical distance no longer dictates who learns and who drops out. Residents said the single borehole must mark the start of sustained public investment, and not the end of state attention.
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Mustapha Abdulganiyu is a Journalism for Liberty Fellow at the Liberalist Centre.
