No
fewer than 663 million people across the globe live without access to
clean water, and the vast majority of them are in rural areas, according
to a new World Bank report. In Nigeria, the numbers of those without
access to safe water and sanitation are also huge. The report, launched
on August 28 at the World Water Week in Sweden, further revealed that in
many countries, services did not reach the poor while children have
continued to suffer as a result. And to the extent that improving access
to clean water will have significant implications for poverty reduction
and human development outcomes, this is a report that the authorities
cannot ignore.
It
is rather unfortunate that Nigeria’s level of access to clean water is
markedly lower than those of other peer countries in the region. That 57
million people in Nigeria continue to live without access to improved
water while 130 million people use unimproved sanitation facilities is
unacceptable. A research conducted by the Water and Sanitation Programme
(WSP) of the World Bank revealed that the socioeconomic impacts of poor
sanitation alone cost the country about $2 billion each year.
A
section of the 185-page report titled ‘Nigeria: A Wake-up Call’
provided a glimpse at the water and sanitation sector in the country.
Under the Nigeria Water Supply, Sanitation, and Hygiene Poverty
Diagnostic, the report revealed that only 29 per cent of Nigerians have
access to improved sanitation. The report noted further that 130 million
Nigerians did not meet the MDG standards for sanitation, while
Nigeria’s water sector faced significant challenges. Even when 61 per
cent of Nigerians have access to improved water, only 31 per cent have
access to improved water on premises.
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 living in both rural
and urban areas consume what 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. For those who can
afford it, especially in the major cities and towns, boreholes are
indiscriminately dug. But that too constitutes its own problems as it
undermines the water table and threatens future supply of the commodity.
Altogether,
the report painted a gloomy picture of the Nigerian condition that is
all too evident, especially with poor children said to be about four
times more likely to get diarrheal disease than rich children and that
public expenditure in water and sanitation was limited and of poor
quality. Besides, across most water-utility indicators, Nigeria
under-performed in comparison to African and global averages, according
to the report which noted that nearly 30 per cent of water points and
water schemes failed within their first year of operation in our
country.
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 burden of poverty. But to
generate a sustained impact, there must be a synergy in what the
various actors are doing so that a combination of such interventions
will have more impact than the sum of their parts.
Particularly
noteworthy is the fact that access to piped water on premises in urban
areas declined from 32 per cent in 1990 to 7 per cent in 2015. Yet until
we make access to water in Nigeria a right and not a privilege as it
currently appears to be, it will be difficult to get many things right.
Courtesy:ThisDay
