By Funmi Olasupo

Following a recent publication that proliferation of borehole drilling would attract earthquake in the country, President Borehole Drillers Association of Nigeria, BODAN, Mr. Francis Uzoma, who is also a geologist, in this interview refutes the claim made by some persons in that publication, and the necessity of borehole in the country.

Excerpts:

For how long have you been the National President of Borehole Drillers Association of Nigeria, BODAN, and what are the activities of your association?

I have been the President of Borehole Drillers Association of Nigeria, BODAN, for almost two years now after my election. The major activities of this association are bringing all the borehole drillers across the federation under one umbrella, the advancement of drilling practice and betterment of drillers across the federation.

As the president of the association, have you been able to carry your members along?

Yes, we have been carrying our members across the States along and they doing very well in their respective states. There is no faction and there has been no faction. Borehole Drillers Association of Nigeria was registered in 1999, and it has been a formidable association. We have our members virtuously in all the 36 States of the federation and they are doing very well, and also we partner with government towards policies implementation.

There is this publication on impending earthquake due to borehole drilling activities, do you subscribe to this fact? 

That publication was based on falsehood, and whoever that have made that publication has no knowledge of the geology of Nigeria because I have never heard in the world where borehole drilling has caused earthquake. So considering what causes an earthquake, earthquake emanates from a very deeper part of the earth, so the drilling we are doing does not even cut across such starter so I think that information is baseless and should be discarded.

There was a statement in that publication which is ‘errand members’, what who do you think it was directed to?

We understand that there are some people who are somewhere trying to constitute themselves but its quiet unfortunate, but we are the umbrella body that speaks for the borehole industry. The borehole drilling industry cut across the casing manufacturers, the pump sellers, the CEO rig companies and manufacturers. It is an industry on its own that is contributing towards making sure Nigerians have water. Definitely in a situation where people who may want to put up information are deceitful we want to urge the general public not to listen to such people, that information is deceitful, and only BODAN’s has authentic information to work with.

What are the proofs you have to authenticate that drilling activities is not sufficient to cause earthquake?

I am a geologist and luckily I did my research work in effective way of monitoring and controlling earthquake and in that area, the earth is structured into three starters, the crusts, the mantle and the core. So the distance between the crust and the mantle is about 50,000 kilometres and most of the drillings we are doing now is on the crust and earthquake emanates usually on the boundary between the mantle and the crust, so the drilling we have been doing has not gotten that deep, usually we do a very shallow drilling of 30 meters, 40 meters and in most cases sedimentary areas we go as much as 100 meters, 200 meters as it is. That information is not something anybody should worry themselves about.

Do you normally have trainings for your members as touching your activities as drillers?

Yes we do have trainings for our members to build their capacities not just within Nigeria but also internationally, we have partnership with some international organisation where our members can be train and in here with the Ministry of Water Resources through there parastatals, National Water Institute in Kaduna where we from time to time our members go there and get certified get trained on how to deliver this services effectively to the good people of Nigeria.