By Funmi Olasupo

Following the claim that borehole drilling could rigger earthquake in the country, President, Borehole  Drillers Association of Nigeria, BODAN, Mr. Francis Uzoma, a geologist, in this interview, says it is untrue.

For how long have you been the National President of  BODAN  and what are the activities of your association?

I have been the President of BODAN for almost two years now after my election. The major activities of this association are bringing all 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 are doing very well in their respective states. There is no faction. Borehole Drillers Association of Nigeria was registered in 1999. We have our members  in almost all the 36 states of the federation; we partner government towards policies implementation.

There was a publication on impending earthquake due to borehole drilling activities in Nigeria. What is your take? 

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

There was a statement in the publication describing some people in BODAN  ‘errand members’. Who do you think it was directed to?

We understand that there are some people who are somewhere trying to constitute themselves into another group, but it is quite unfortunate.  We are the umbrella body that speaks for the borehole industry. The borehole drilling industry cuts across the casing manufacturers, the pump sellers, the  rig companies and manufacturers. It is an industry that is contributing towards making sure Nigerians have water. In this situation where people appear to want to put in the public domain false information, we want to urge the public not to listen to them, that information is deceitful, only BODAN has the authentic information to work with.

What is the proof that drilling activities are not sufficient to cause earthquake?

I am a geologist and I did my research work on how to monitor and control earthquake. In that area, the earth is structured into three starters, the crust, the mantle and the core. The distance between the crust and the mantle is about 50,000 kilometres and most of the drilling we are doing now is on the crust and earthquake emanates usually on the boundary between the mantle and the crust. The drilling we do does not go that deep.  Usually, we do a very shallow drilling of 30 meters, 40 meters and in  sedimentary areas we go as deep as 100 meters, 200 meters. That information is not something anybody should worry about.

Do you normally have training for your members?

Yes, we train our members to build their capacities not just within Nigeria but also internationally.  We have partnership with some international organisations where our members can be trained and here with the Ministry of Water Resources through its parastatals, National Water Institute in Kaduna where our members go and get trained on how to deliver potable water to the people of Nigeria.