Biola Azeez, Ilorin
A recent study on needs of 2,764 communities in Kwara state by an anti-corruption civil society organization in Nigeria, the Elites Network for Sustainable Development (ENetSuD), has revealed that 408 communities in the state never had any water project in their lifetime.
Presenting the report carried out in the 193 wards of the state under its Citizens Enlightenment and Mobilization Programme (CEMP), sponsored by the Gobir Organisation Foundation, the ENetSuD Coordinator, Dr. Alagbonsi Abdullateef, said that, thus, residents of the affected communities, “either drink from dirty ground water source or travel long distance to source water from other communities”.
The group also said that at least 1,964 communities in the state had existing boreholes that had become damaged/faulty and needed to be repaired to continue serving the people.
“These are in addition to communities that had abandoned water projects and non-functional waterworks”, he said.
Dr. Abdullateef, who said that a total of 1,105 communities were assessed in Kwara North senatorial district and 761 in Kwara South senatorial district, added that 898 communities were assessed in Kwara Central senatorial district.
The needs of Kwara communities were categorized into 29 and all communities were assessed to determine their needs from the categories.
“In the electricity sector, ENetSuD identified 915 communities that had never been connected to electricity source and had never enjoyed electricity in their lifetime because of lack of availability of any electrification facility, while 221 communities had electrification projects aimed at providing electricity that were not completed and had now been abandoned.
The report contained 624 communities in Kwara state that do not have primary school and rely on distant communities for primary school education for their pupils, which 1,599 communities do not have easy access to secondary schools across the state. Moreover, 967 communities have schools with insufficient staff like teachers and support staff.
Similarly, ENetSuD identified 1,738 communities that do not have easy access to primary healthcare across the state but rely on distant communities to access healthcare services.
“On road infrastructure, over 2,300 communities need their roads to be (re)constructed, while over 2,100 communities need grading of their roads to make them motorable. On communication, there is lack of GSM network in 593 communities of Kwara State.
