Government to sink 19,500 boreholes

Nigeria's federal government is due to sink some 19,500 boreholes next year throughout the country, The Guardian newspaper reported Water Resources Minister Mukhtari Shagari as saying. Shagari said that the project, due to start in February, would allocate 25 boreholes to each council to ensure that water is made available to all Nigerians regardless of where they lived. The ministry has already spent some 34 million naira (about US $290,000) to sink 1,000 wells and provide 1,000 water pumps for use by dry-season farmers at Alwassa, Argugungu Council Area in the northern state of Kebbi, the daily reported the minister as saying. Shagari added that the water pumps would allow farmers to begin dry season farming before the completion of a major irrigation scheme planned for the area. He expressed optimism that the project would help reduce rural-urban migration by farmers during the dry season, The Guardian reported.