By Nneka Nwogwugwu
Eight Benue LGAS have benefitted from 2,000 boreholes construction provided by the Benue State Government in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF.
Local government areas where the boreholes are cited include Konshisha, Katsina Ala, Guma, Tarka, Buruku, Ogbadibo, Oju and Obi.
Outgoing UNICEF Chief Field Officer in Nigeria, Ibrahim Conteh, made this known on Tuesday, January 18, 2022 at the Benue Peoples House during a farewell visit to the Governor, said the feat was achieved in a period of four years.
Conteh stated that the intervention was to ensure that the most deprived communities have access to safe drinking water which he said could save the people, especially children and women from contracting water borne diseases.
The UNICEF Chief Field Officer who is moving to Afghanistan stated that the UN Agency has gone a step further to connect the boreholes to primary health care centres and primary schools in the communities and assured that they would also undertake rehabilitation of the boreholes, Daily Post reported.
According to Dr Conteh, UNICEF has also expended about one million dollars to provide temporary learning centres in IDPs across the state as well as partnered the ministry of education to ensure that children were enrolled in schools.
He commended Governor Samuel Ortom for always providing the needed counterpart funding to make the work of UNICEF easier as well as consistently feeding the IDPs to ensure that children living in the camps are not malnourished.
Governor Samuel Ortom expressed appreciation to UNICEF for assisting the state through various interventions and assured that apart from the counterpart funding, the government would ensure that facilities provided by the UN Agency are well managed.
