By Debo Adefisan Dateline: Saturday, June 24, 2023 at about 4.42pm, the development of the Borehole sunk to pump 10,000 Liters of water per day for use in all areas within St. John’s Grammar School, ILE-IFE was concluded. Water was pumped non stop for 45 minutes as a proof that this well will not dry up either intermittently or ‘sine die’ like that of the 2 Manual pump boreholes earlier provided by the Government. You will recall that we drank water from a Concrete underground water reservoir as Students of this great School. Our Toilet was a pit system where water was not supplied. We used improvised devices to fetch water from the reservoir in front of our Library and some of our Seniors confiscated such Water for their use???? The need for Water in such an expanse of human community cannot be over emphasized. Reverend Father Fabian Cloutier dug a Well in front of ‘Baba Agric’ Quarters which was fitted with a surface pump and reticulated using booster pumps to places within the School Compound. Three of the Eight Staff Quarters and the Adminstrative building initially had water reticulated to their closets. Mr. A. T Aremu, Mrs. Harrinder Sutton and Mr. Raymond Babatunde all enjoyed water in their Quarters until a certain time in 1979 when there was a disruption that couldn’t be easily addressed. Water became an essential commodity within the School and the Well was opened. Oke Atan community as at then had very few productive wells suitable for potability. So, they flocked to St. John’s to fetch Water in droves, polluting the well, driving conflicts and misgivings until locks were fitted on the Well again. That Well does not dry up either in the dry or raining season but it is largely unsuitable for drinking. This was the situation in St. John’s Grammar School until Chief Dr. Olusola Oyeyemi intervened by drilling a Borehole currently in use in the School. The challenge of the noble effort by Dr. Oyeyemi is the hard igneous rock on which the entire school land sits. According to the reports of […]