Causes of Water Borehole Failure in Sedimentary Terrain: Case of Rural Water Supplies to Communities in Enugu State, Southeastern Nigeria
Published 2026-04-27
Keywords
- Array
Abstract
Many water boreholes sunk under past Government Administrations in Enugu State have failed in performing their desired functions. Analysis of data from government records, personal visits and investigations, interviews of water borehole owners and drillers showed that all the twenty-four (24) new water boreholes sunk and four (4) rehabilitated water boreholes totaling twenty-eight (28) across seven Local Government Areas of Enugu State under Local Empowerment and Environmental Projects (LEEMP) have failed. Diagnosis and analyses of the failures indicated that the causes are numerous and varied. Though some of the causes are partly due to hydrogeological and lack of well-organized and structured operations and maintenance programmes related problems, most of the failures are caused by poor and inadequate planning and use of unqualified and corrupt service providers (contractors) execution of water borehole projects. These frequent failures and breakdowns of water boreholes result in communities reverting to the traditional polluted water supplies and children and women trek several kilometers daily in search of waters of even questionable qualities and quantities.
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