This is a story of 2 young people on the quest to provide 52 boreholes to rural communities in Ebonyi State by 2030 and needing support to accomplish their mission.
The water crisis in Ebonyi state’s rural villages, particularly during the dry season, has been a source of concern over the years.
According to UNICEF, contaminated drinking water and poor sanitary conditions increase vulnerability to water-borne diseases such as diarrhoea, which kills more than 70,000 children under the age of five each year.
Many households in rural communities do not have access to an improved water supply. They rely solely on self-water supply such as perennial streams, rivers, water ponds and unprotected wells which are susceptible to waterborne diseases such as typhoid fever, dysentery and malaria parasites etc.
Drilling a borehole can be very expensive in most rural communities, and with the high rate of poverty, only a few can afford one. Let it Flow Initiatives, led by Ukeni Shekina and Zack Onwe, are working to uplift this burden from many communities in Ebonyi state.
Their goal is to provide at least four boreholes in each of Ebonyi state’s thirteen Local Government Areas by 2030, a total of fifty-two (52) boreholes. The duo, who are inspiring other young people in their communities to take action, are from Ebonyi state and are doing this to curb the health implications of drinking contaminated water.
They began the project in 2020 and have drilled four boreholes in four different local government areas of the state, which include Ishielu, Ohaozara, Ebonyi and Afikpo L.G.A, respectively, with the assistance of good-spirited individuals, whom they frequently target on social media.
On November 26, 2020, Zack tweeted on his Twitter handle that the only thing he wanted for Christmas was to provide water for the people of Ndiagueke village in Ntezi, Ishielu Local Government Area, Ebonyi State.
The campaign was dubbed #TheGoodWaterIsLife. To increase awareness of the situation, other young people joined the campaign, which was strictly on social media, retweeting and sharing the content with the hashtag to reach a larger audience.
The campaign’s increased visibility resulted in the funding support they got for the drilling of the first borehole for the people of Ndiagueke in Ntezi, Ishielu local government area of Ebonyi state on December 19, 2020.
For Zack and Shekina, life should be all about service and it is a major reason they have been embarking on different ventures such as community sensitization on the health implications of FGM and other harmful practices, sexual and gender-based violence, health and education in their state to ensure that some of the most pronounced problems are spotlighted and the people enlightened to live a better life.
Mr John Okechukwu, the leader of one of the benefitting communities, said that they solely depended on rainwater as their major source of drinking water and the streams during the rainy season, but the dry season, which is when they need water the most, was often a challenge to them in the whole of Ogbana village, but everything changed when the Let It Flow Initiative came to the community and provided a hand pump borehole which currently serves more than five hundred households.
‘’Three villages in our community had over many years depended on using a particular pond as their source of water for all their daily activities, many people both adults and children have died because of diseases the water has caused them. We made a video of what we were passing through and posted it online and the Let It Flow Initiative reach out to us and gave us a borehole which our people have been using and it gives us clean and drinkable water” Joebliss Nnamdi, Okpoitumo, Ikwo LGA
On their method, the duo stated that what they often do is visit some of the villages and take photos of their water source, share them on social media and plead for help from their followers and friends. They also reach out to politicians representing that particular constituency but in many cases, that effort has not yielded much result since they began the campaign.
While at the site of their first water project in Ntezi, one of the beneficiaries, whom the water was situated in his compound, spoke on his experience with the Let It Flow team:
“I was so glad when they came to take a photo of the water we were fetching, they said they were going to give us better water, although I have always heard about how people have been receiving assistance through social media, I never knew it was going to be so easy and without them demanding any money from us.” Chief Joseph Nome, Ndiagueke, Ulepa Ntezi, Ishielu L.G.A
Chief Joseph Nome further stated that he was skeptical about how the two young people that came to their water source were going to do for them what the government had failed to do for so many years but was shocked when he saw the borehole drilling machine packing up in his compound and asking for where they wanted the water to be drilled also what was even more shocking was the fact that they didn’t demand any money from him or the community.
Zack Onwe, the Co-founder of Let It Flow Initiatives, while speaking on his inspiration, said that he had always sought ways to give back to his community not because he considers himself a wealthy person but due to his experience growing up in the rural community of Ebonyi state. He understood the pains and the health implications of drinking unsafe water and was also aware of how onchocerciasis caused the death of many in his village, thanks to the stories his late mother shared with him. Hence, with this knowledge and social media as a tool in his hands, he swung into action.
“Social media is a tool that many are not fully utilizing and that if everyone focused their effort on using social media to solve problems affecting a people or group of people a lot will change.” Zack Onwe, Co-founder, Let It Flow Initiatives
While speaking on how they became partners Ms. Shekina Ukeni, the founder of Let It Flow Initiative said that they met in 2019 at a social engagement and she was attracted to Zack during a discussion in the room where he used his approach to solving community problems as a reference point to a question that was raised. During the networking session they met and discussed at length about extending their activities to other communities through partnership, this later led to them starting the Let It flow Initiative.
According to the team, one major challenge they have observed that affects projects like theirs is the lack of community ownership in many parts of the state. This is seen in the community approach to a lot of projects including schools and hospitals built by the government and NGOs. As soon as these projects are marred or damaged, they are abandoned by the community members who wait on the government or the NGOs for repair.
To tackle this, the team often has a meeting with the communities before projects are carried out to encourage community ownership of these projects. Through this approach, the maintenance and sustainability of the borehole projects are guaranteed. Asides this, they also pay visits to the communities to ascertain the state of the projects from time to time.
Another major challenge has been the lack of adequate finances to carry out the projects on their own. The team is therefore soliciting partnerships with NGOs and philanthropists to help them continue the good works they are doing in Ebonyi state to save more lives, especially women and children.