Residents of Aralapon Community, Ilesa, Osun State where one of reservoir for the Ilesa water project is located have expressed displeasure over the current state of the project.
Leaders in the community said the present state of the project has subject them to more problems.
The made this known during a visit by the members of the Community of Practice (COP) Project Trust to the community recently.
Project Trust is a citizen-centred initiative that seeks to bridge the communication gap between the governed and government and asks for transparency and public accountability
The leaders also emphasised that the community needs a community school, a primary health centre, road and streetlights. They stressed that no school exists for their wards in the community and environs.
One of the leaders, Mr. Ademola Olukitibi explained that having a project of such magnitude in their community ordinarily ought to have brought succour and relief to them, but it has brought pain instead.
Olukitibi said: “Aside from needing access to pipe-borne water, which the project would have addressed, the major road into into the community now gets slippery when it rains due to the unending dam construction.”
He also mentioned how the government took over the community member’s house because of the project and was asked to relocate, saying the contractors have also ignored them.
Explaining the aspects of the project, a member of the COP, John Afolarin, took time to explain other aspects of the project. According to him, this includes the cost, logistics, bottlenecks related to the project, and the required and estimated time for the project completion.
Afolarin also explained how they could nominate the school project and track the project.
Some of the community demands includes, establishment of a community school for their wards as there’s none close by or in the environs, creation of a primary health centre as they have to go far to get a medical attention and proper construction and extension of the only road which leads into the community.
