NWRI Kaduna fabricates drilling machine

The National Water Resources Institute, Kaduna, the research arm of the Ministry of Water Resources, has designed and produced homemade drilling rig that would be used for drilling of boreholes.
The Minister of Water Resources, Sarah Reng Ochekpe, announced this on Thursday while commissioning two of such rigs produced by the Institute.
One of the rigs is manually operated while the other one is motorised.
Commissioning the projects as part of the programme scheduled for the 22nd National Council on Water Resources meeting held at the Institute in Kaduna, Ochekpe commended the Institute for conceiving the idea of fabricating homemade drilling rig.
She said: “Nigerians in National Water Resources Institute, Kaduna spent a lot of time to design and fabricate this and it is working.
“We are happy about it.
“This government is committed not just to developing infrastructure but also to ensuring that we drastically reduce the level of unemployment and get our young people gainfully engaged and employed.
“If we are able to empower the youths through the ownership of the rigs, it will go a long way in keeping them not only busy but also providing water for the people of Nigeria.”
Ochekpe said she will report to President Goodluck Jonathan appropriately and will also engage with other sister ministries and agencies such as the Standard Organisation of Nigeria and the Small and Medium Enterprise on how they can further assist in the manufacturing and making it readily available for use in different communities.
She urged the Institute to keep up the good work, adding that it may take long before some of the things they are doing will come to limelight.
She however admonished them never to give up.
Ochekpe said: “If Nigeria will be technologically developed, all our research institution must be busy and must be willing to come up with things that will be useful to the country.
“We don’t have to depend on external fabrication, which importation consumes a lot of hard currency but when we produce within, it would be cheaper and readily available for use.”
She added that with time, the quality and efficiency of the product would improve.
Earlier, in his remarks, the Executive Director of the Institute, Dr. Olusanjo Bamgboye, said that the Institute would invite private manufacturers to mass produce the rig and make it available for use.
The Minister has also commissioned a students chalet to reduce the accommodation problem of students that would come from within and outside the country.