Accelerating Change to Solve Water and Sanitation Crisis in Nigeria

As the world marked the 2023 World Water Day on March 22, 2023, themed, ‘Accelerating Change’, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa, CAPPA, in partnership with the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporation, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees, AUPCTRE, have harped on the need to accelerate change to solve water and sanitation crisis in Nigeria. Sunday Ehigiator reports

World Water Day 2023 is about accelerating change to solve the water and sanitation crisis.

Dysfunction throughout the water cycle undermines progress on all major global issues, from health to hunger, gender equality to jobs, education to industry, and disasters to peace.

In 2015, the world committed to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 as part of the 2030 Agenda with the promise that everyone would have safely managed water and sanitation by 2030.

Data

As the world commemorates World Water Day, globally, more than 1.42 billion people, including 450 million children, are living in areas of high or extremely high water vulnerability, this is according to an analysis released by UNICEF in 2021.

This means that one in five children worldwide do not have enough water to meet their everyday needs.

The figures in Nigeria are particularly worrying, with 26.5 million Nigerian children experiencing high or extremely high water vulnerability or 29 per cent of Nigerian children.

Nigeria Water and Sanitation Situation

Nigeria is right now seriously off-track from SDG Goal-6. Billions of people and countless schools, businesses, healthcare centres, farms, and factories are being held back because their human rights to water and sanitation still need to be fulfilled.

There is an urgent need to accelerate change to go beyond ‘business as usual.’ The latest data show that government must work an average of four times faster to meet SDG 6 on time, but this is not a situation that any single actor or group can solve, as water affects everyone, hence everyone needs to take action.

Access to clean water and improved sanitation facilities is a daily challenge for many Nigerians.

This problem is particularly acute in northern Nigeria, where only 30 per cent of the population has access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation. This contributes to the high prevalence of waterborne diseases, threatens the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, and contributes to low levels of school enrollment, especially among girls.

With reports by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) that one-third of Nigerian children do not have enough water to meet their daily needs, the occasion of this year’s World Water Day has again brought to the front burner the seeming helplessness of governments to provide potable water nationwide.

Yet water remains a major accessory to the positive development of people. Its non-availability is a major indictment of government failure in the country.

Water as Gendered Resources

Arguably, the impact of water on sanitation affects women more than it affects their male counterparts. Women need access to clean water the most for personal hygiene, home sanitation and taking care of their children.

It has become increasingly accepted that women should play an important role in water management and that this role could be enhanced through the strategy of gender mainstreaming.

The importance of involving both women and men in the management of water and sanitation and access-related questions has been recognized at the global level, starting from the 1977 United Nations Water Conference at Mar del Plata, the International Drinking Water and Sanitation Decade (1981-90) and the International Conference on Water and the Environment in Dublin (January 1992) which explicitly recognizes the central role of women in the provision, management and safeguarding of water.

Moreover, the resolution establishing the International Decade for Action, ‘Water for Life’ (2005-2015), calls for women’s participation and involvement in water-related development efforts.

The differences and inequalities between women and men influence how individuals respond to changes in water resources management. Understanding gender roles, relations, and inequalities can help explain the choices people make and their different options. Involving both women and men in integrated water resources initiatives can increase project effectiveness and efficiency.

Water as Human Right

Just like the right to life, right to free speech, and right to association, there is also the human right to water and sanitation.

Access to safe drinking water and sanitation are internationally recognized human rights, derived from the right to an adequate standard of living under Article 11(1) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

On July 28, 2010, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a historical resolution recognizing “the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation is a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights.”

Furthermore, since 2015, the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council have recognized both the right to safe drinking water and the right to sanitation as closely related but distinct human rights.

International human rights law obliges States to work towards achieving universal access to water and sanitation for all, without any discrimination, while prioritizing those most in need.

In guiding the implementation by States, key elements of the rights to water and sanitation are elaborated by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in its General Comment No. 15 and in the work of the Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water.

They posited that water must be “Available, Accessible, Affordable, Quality, Safe and Acceptable by all.”

Nigeria’s Attempt at Water Privatisation

Water is a universal human right. However, across the world and even in Nigeria, there have been attempts to privatise water access. Community members, civil society organisations (CSOs) and unionists say that if this succeeds, these attempts will do more harm than good.

Water is essential to life. However, the reality for many people in developing countries is that access to clean water is a problem. Even though water covers about 70 per cent of the earth’s surface, only 3 per cent is fresh water.

In June 2022, a controversial bill called ‘The Water Bill’ was re-presented to the Federal House of Representatives by Sada Soli, a member of the House of Representatives from Katsina.

This executive bill was first brought to the House in 2018 and was rejected by the eighth assembly, following widespread outrage.

This water bill seeks to bring all water resources (surface and underground) under the control of the Federal Government. It proposes licenses for the use of water including a requirement that all landlords must obtain a driller permit before sinking a borehole in their homes.

It was therefore shocking to see the bill re-presented again in 2022, in a surreptitious manner.

According to findings, the re-presentation of the bill in 2022 took place at a time when most members were away from the House for various reasons.

An anonymous source at the National Assembly has said, “We had to inform the members of the house who in turn started calling each other to return and attend to the bill.”

The re-presented bill had passed the first reading. However, no new update has been heard on it again as many Civil Society organisations, including CAPPA and other water coalitions, have kicked against it, and are at the forefront of the fight for the government to respect water as part of human rights.

Fight against Water Privatisation

CAPPA has been at the forefront of the fight against water privatisation. According to CAPPA Executive Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi said, “for four consecutive years, we have wrestled against the private capture of our public water resources, disguised in the provision of the ‘packaged’ Nigerian Water Resources Bill” with activists battling plans by the government to privatise water through an unpopular and widely criticised National Water Resources Bill.”

Olwafemi, speaking in commemoration of the 2023 edition of the Water Day celebration, noted that privatisation of water denies Nigerians their right access to clean water.

He admitted that though through no fault of Nigerians, citizens have been saddled with the task of providing water for themselves, further making access to clean water more difficult and expensive for people who cannot afford to set up their boreholes.

“Water privatisation is a failed option which only puts profits above people,” Oluwafemi noted.

He stressed that the evidence of failed privatisation schemes across the world for decades has made it clear that the country must accelerate change, away from the exploitative model of privatisation, and in favour of democratic public ownership and control of water resources.

He maintained that the everyday experience of communities in Nigeria and Africa reveals the realities of the water crises suffered by hundreds of millions, which he said is a “sharp deviation” from expectations, arising from the 201 Resolution 64/292 of the United Nations Assembly, which explicitly recognises the human right to water and sanitation.

The CAPPA boss also found the continued role of water privatising corporations and their representatives in the United Nations gatherings very disturbing.

“For instance, AquaFed, the organisation representing the abusive industry on the world stage is coordinating World Water Day! This is a slap in the face of water just and must end!” He pointed out.

In addition, he said there have been “Very disturbing accounts of the abuse of multinational corporations, such as Veolia and Suez, both members of AquaFed, have led communities across the continent to reject water privatisation in its many forms, including so-called public-private partnerships.”

He, therefore, called on the government, relevant authorities and stakeholders in the water industry, to accelerate efforts towards making water available through public ownership.