Challenges Associated with Pipe-borne Water Infrastructure in Erelu Waterworks Zone, Oyo State, Nigeria

The current study explores the infrastructural weaknesses that make Erelu waterworks zone inadequate in Oyo State, Nigeria. A mixed methods approach was adopted using GIS mapping, observation, archival research, and interviews. The Erelu Water Works is characterized by several systemic infrastructural malfunctions. The dam faces siltation through urban runoff, and residential encroachment. The treatment infrastructures are seriously out of date, with faulty aeration tank, manual lime dosing, inefficient high lift pumps, and abandoned Booster stations. The 12-inch main pipeline (6.8km) designed to transport the water to the Sooro Booster station has been punctured by many household connections to this pipe. As a result, 90.83% of the registered users in Oyo, Awe, Ilora, Akinmorin, Fiditi, and Iware towns are without water supply. The attempts by the government to rehabilitate the facility have been unsuccessful as can be seen from a ₦10 billion Fiditi Earth dam that was started in 2011 and had to be abandoned by 2020. Another attempt was made in 2019 through a ₦1.4 billion rehabilitation funded by the World Bank, but it too could not succeed because of lack of counterpart funds. There is an urgent need for upgrading and rehabilitation of Erelu pipe-borne water infrastructures. There is the need to expand the Dam and water treatment units, replace and extend the pipelines, rehabilitate and provide more Booster stations, and provide adequate funding to restore services.