IN joining the rest of the world to commemorate the World Water Day (WWD) on March 22, 2020, the Federal Government beat its chest over its efforts in providing safe drinking water. At a press conference organised to mark the event in Abuja, the Minister of Water Resources, Engineer Suleiman H. Adamu, enumerated the administration’s achievements to include the establishment of eight functional water analysis laboratories, construction of dams, and irrigation projects. The few state governments that deigned to speak on the pitiable state of affairs in the sector merely offered platitudes, while others took the escapist route of keeping sealed lips. Sadly, this year was no different.
The theme of this year’s celebration was Valuing Water. It was meant to underscore the “enormous and complex value of water for households, food, culture, health, education, economics and the integrity of the natural environment.” Sadly, in Nigeria, most homes and organisations, including governments, still create their own sources of water supply. Ubiquitous scenes of animals sharing water sources with humans, and of mothers and children drinking water from totally unhygienic and polluted streams and rivers littered with putrid waste, subsist. Millions of urban dwellers rely on water vendors with curious sources of water supply to sustain themselves, with grave implications for health and the ecosystem.
In the main, leadership ineptitude and wickedness are the factors depriving the people of such a critical utility that was once taken for granted in most parts of the country in the era that followed Independence. Whereas huge funds are appropriated annually for the maintenance and provision of water facilities, there is nothing tangible to justify the humongous expenditure. This is due to pervasive corruption. The embarrassing pictures of people in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) drinking muddy water published on March 22, the World Water Day, constitute an irony given the availability of raw water everywhere in the country. Water is literally everywhere, but there is none fit to drink. Nigerians are regularly treated to a salad of lame excuses, especially by state commissioners for water, and water corporations, the usual excuse being the lack of funds for reticulation.
Officials of the ministries, departments and agencies saddled with the provision of clean water across all levels are masters in the art of grandstanding, self-adulation and window dressing. Water vendors have been emboldened to extort the citizenry in their bid to procure safe water. The populace is constantly made more vulnerable to illnesses and diseases, including typhoid and cholera. Precious human hours that ought to be deployed in other productive ventures are wasted by citizens in their desperate search for quality water. Indeed, the country is rated abysmally with a score of 12 per cent in the area of quality water, compared to Benin Republic and Niger Republic with 89 per cent and 60 per cent respectively. In fact, it is estimated that close to half of the Nigerian population has no access to safe drinking water.
Truth be told, the water crisis has been worsened by Nigerians’ resignation to fate. The situation requires vehement demands by the citizenry. The government must not be allowed to continue inflicting avoidable hardship, deaths and disabilities on Nigerians through the non-provision of potable water. Public officials need to be kept permanently on their toes. In this regard, the media and advocacy groups should help to raise public awareness on the current anomaly. Water is life.
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