‘Drilling Of Boreholes Can Cause Earth Tremor In Abuja,’– Expert Warns FCT Residents

It is believed that over 110,000 boreholes have been drilled within the Federal Capital Territory while more than 330,000 metric tons of water are extracted daily from the holes.

An expert has warned that indiscriminate drilling of boreholes and extraction of water from the ground are capable of upsetting the equilibrium of the earth and causing violent tremors (slight earthquakes) in the FCT.

According to an earth scientist of the University of Abuja, Professor Ishaku Mallo, drilling of boreholes can cause the ground to shake while excessive extraction of water can make the ground sink.

Speaking to THE WHISTLER in his office, he said, “As you are drilling these holes into the ground, there is vibration in the ground. These shaking vibrations can easily cause dislocation of the plates in the ground.

“Since the drilling has brought cracks in the soil, the excessive extraction of groundwater can make the ground sink. The sinking down of the earth makes the ground move. Even if it goes down a little, it can cause the whole FCT to shake because the balance of the earth has been distorted.

“The problem with human beings is that, people think the natural environment is just bush, because the soil doesn’t talk, the trees don’t talk, rocks don’t talk so they will begin to explore them anyhow. But that is not the case.

“It’s just like the human body, when someone just decides to take a knife and cut you indiscriminately all over and you are left that way, you will become sick. The same thing is applicable to the natural environment; unfortunately this is what people do not know.”

He said God created the earth with a natural balance and equilibrium such that there is a reaction, a “protest”,  when there is dis-equilibrium.

He said this geological norm also applies to drilling of boreholes, dams, felling of trees and other negative activities of man on the environment.

“For boreholes, the soil is a system that operates just like any other system, the soil system gets its water through infiltration, and there are pores,  spaces in the soil. Those pores or spaces are the holes that are in the soil. There is what is called groundwater recharge, that is the amount of water that is supposed to be in the ground.

“So when there is excessive extraction of water from the ground, it compresses the soil. It’s like a bread soaked in water, when you squeeze the water out, you are left with a flat bread,” he explained.

He said the tremor felt around the Mpape area of Abuja  for three days in 2018 was due to similar activities including blasting of rocks.

The tremor, which happened around the site of a huge Quarry, forced some residents of the area to relocate for safety.

Prof Mallo, who was one of the experts invited by the government to investigate the cause of the tremor, said, “During the earth tremor in September 2018, The minister of the FCT invited me, and I was one of the sixteen-man team that was called to look at the remote cause of the earth tremor in Mpape.

“As experts, we were able to discuss, and one of the points that I raised as an individual was the fact that in Abuja here there are so many boreholes that would have led to the tremor.

“People don’t realize that pressure on the environment has its negative effect. You see a thirty-year-old tree and you cut it, if you plant another one it may take another thirty years to get to that point. Yet, there’s indiscriminate felling of trees, digging of the ground and indiscriminate making of dams, these things have negative effects on the environment.

“Before the earth tremor, people would say nothing of that sort can happen in the FCT here. But the truth is that, with what we are doing,  it can happen.”

However, there does not appear to be any regulating yet in the FCT regarding the drilling of boreholes.  Janet Peni,  the Public Relation Officer for Abuja Environmental Protection Board, told THE WHISTLER that the agency had no borehole policy.

She said, “We have nothing to do with borehole drilling in Abuja, I think that is for the Water Board. It has nothing to do with AEPB.  I know that there’s no permission to drill borehole, but it is better you hear it from them.”

However, efforts made to speak with the FCT Water Board proved abortive, after calls and text messages were ignored.