The Benue State government with the support of UNICEF has constructed about 638 boreholes in eight local government areas (LGAs) of the state in the last two years.

The General Manager of the State Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (BERWASA), Mr Ejembi Ella, disclosed this on Thursday after inspecting some of the boreholes in Tarka and Buruku LGAs of the state.

While giving details of the projects, Mr Ella said 594 of the boreholes are hand-propelled pumps while 44 are motorised boreholes.

He added that BERWASA has also rehabilitated over 450 others across the state, attributing the feat to the release of over N600m by Governor Samuel Ortom as counterpart fund to UNICEF.

The General Manager noted further that with the availability of more funds, all the local governments in the state would be covered in the programme.

He also revealed that about 500 blocks of VIP latrines have been built across the state, a development he said facilitated the certification of 2,000 communities open defecation free.

“At BERWASSA, we encourage benefiting local councils to protect these all-important water facilities and many other communities who are yet to benefit from the programmes have been lined up for the next phase when the scale up activities commences with availability of resources required to fund water and sanitation projects across the state,” Ella said.

Commending the quality of the projects, the special adviser to the governor on Media and ICT Mr Tahav Agerzua said Ortom’s administration exploited the avenue created by development partners to provide facilities for the people and assured them that the tempo would be sustained.

He said: “The provision of these safe and potable water facilities for our brothers in the rural areas is very important and we commend Governor Samuel Ortom for addressing the issue of the yearly cholera outbreak due to lack of access to safe and potable water”.

One of the beneficiaries of the projects Mr James Mbiho said the development has alleviated their sufferings and made them to live healthier lives.

He said: “Since the Benue State government brought this project to our community, access to safe water has improved significantly and we will protect it because of our interest in this area”.

Some of the projects inspected include the solar and electricity powered boreholes at Pipeline and Asukunya communities in Tarka LGA; as well as the solar powered borehole in Mbaapen and a VIP latrine at LGEA Primary School, Yasar of Buruku LGA.