Olorunda Community in Oyo State cries out - "Forty years without Electricity"

“It’s been about 40 years that transformer and electric poles were brought to the community. Since then, we have not had light,” says the community head.
“While there are many things that we need, power-supply is primary to us.

It is the most important to us” a community elder, Salisu Raimi laments.

“We also want to use refrigerators and drink cold water,” Muideen Tijani another community member expressed his dissatisfaction.

Olorunda community has a vast expanse of arable lands used for cassava cultivation which provides raw materials for Garri production. Daily, hundreds of trucks convey agricultural produce to the main town. But these trips to and from the community are fraught with challenges as the roads are in a poor and deplorable shape.

Residents of Olorunda and other neighbouring communities have repeatedly contributed to keeping the road motorable.

“We constructed the road that led to this place,” says Yekini Raji.

“We were given graders, but we were responsible for the fuelling. We also catered to the welfare of the drivers, which costs 50,000 daily and we were there for three days”.

Access to potable water is a significant challenge to residents of Olorunda community. Though there are four solar-powered water points and boreholes in Olorunda, only one of them supplies water for over 500 residents in the area.