THE CHALLENGE OF SAFE WATER

All stakeholders should do more to ensure the provision of clean water

Celebrated on 22 March every year since 1993, the World Water Day focuses on the importance of freshwater with special attention on Goal Six of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which seeks to ensure water and sanitation for all by 2030. Across the country, Nigeria is blessed with several rivers. Despite this huge endowment of nature, access to potable water remains a problem for the majority of the people. As the country therefore joins the rest of the world to mark the 2025 World Water Day tomorrow, authorities in Nigeria must work to provide good water for the citizens.

Potable water and improved sanitation services are verifiable measures for fighting poverty and diseases. Yet, in the absence of water from piped supplies and protected wells, millions of Nigerians are condemned to consuming whatever is available. In many rural communities, the challenge is critical as women and children trek long distances to fetch water from contaminated streams and ponds. Meanwhile, five years from now, going by the SDG goal, every person in Nigeria and other countries in the world should have access to safe drinking water and sanitation. 

Due to the problem of access to potable water, a preventable disease like cholera has been a recurring epidemic in Nigeria and has led to the death of thousands of people, especially children. In many of our states, the villagers and rural dwellers are left to rely on streams as the only source of drinking water, and there are no provisions for disposing waste. In most cases also, the people rely on stagnant water for washing their clothes and other items. 

We are particularly concerned that many children in the rural communities miss out on the opportunity to go to school as they spend several hours daily collecting water for domestic use. It is in this light that we appeal to government, at all levels, to upgrade non-protected water systems and improve the management of all drinking water in line with WHO and International Standard Organisation of Nigeria (ISO) guidelines on drinking of quality water.

The first crisis concerning the spread of disease begins with failure by most state governments to provide potable water for their teeming population. In fact, chances are that the annual security votes for governors in most of the states astronomically surpass budgetary allocations to the provision of clean water for the people. While there have been some efforts by the federal government to deal with the challenge, we have not seen a corresponding commitment from the state governments where cholera and other water-borne diseases are ravaging citizens the most. States must do more in providing adequate clean water, especially for those in the rural areas.  

What the foregoing says is that public officials, at all levels, as well as key stakeholders must begin to develop effective policies and interventions to address shortcomings in access to clean water. Such efforts should be targeted at the most vulnerable in society, specifically those who experience the greatest burdens of poverty. As critical stakeholders mark the 2025 World Water Day, we hope that the government at all levels will work towards accelerating change to solve the water and sanitation crisis.

 The federal government  should also streamline modalities that will train medical staff across the country on how to handle the outbreak of cholera and other water-borne diseases. But since prevention remains the best cure, it is important to take the issue of water more seriously.  We must make access to clean water in Nigeria a right and not a privilege.