Over 60 million rural dwellers in Nigeria have no access to water

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United Kingdom-based Merry-Gold Water Charity has disclosed that over 60 million rural dwellers in the Country have no access to potable water, thereby posing great health challenges.

The organisation whose core mandate includes addressing the worsening global water crisis added that the figure represents over 30% of the nation’s population.

It was stated that many rural dwellers had in the past lost their lives to the acute water crisis, especially in Nigeria where millions in rural areas depend on natural water sources such as rivers, lakes, streams, and unsafe wells with its attendant health, economic and social challenges.

The founder of the organisation, Prince Akeem Adenuga stressed that this had contributed greatly to the prevalence of waterborne diseases including cholera and typhoid fever.

Adenuga in a statement while bemoaning the depressing data from UNICEF which declared that vulnerability to waterborne diseases including diarrhea claims the lives of 70,000 children annually in Nigeria, noted that the water situation in big cities in Nigeria is nothing to write home about.

He explained that in Lagos, Nigeria’s economic hub, several rural communities lack access to clean water despite the proximity to urban centres.

Adenuga disclosed that addressing the water situation in Nigeria required concerted efforts from the government, NGOs, and international partners.

According to him, the need to change the narrative of access to clean water in several rural communities in Nigeria starting from Lagos informed the establishment of Merry-Gold Water Charity UK.

Adenuga pointed out that the pilot project at Odo-Ayandelu was the first rural community to benefit by giving 5,000 people access to clean water.

He stated that the next port of call is Owu- Ikosi with 3,000 people expected to benefit from the £10,000 water project.

‘’At the moment, the people of Owu-Ikosi community and their livestock depend on inadequate cloudy and unsafe water mainly from nearby streams and wells. Beyond solving the immediate water needs of underserved communities, Merry-Gold Water Charity intends to, in the medium to long term, orchestrate the type of attitudinal change that will result in better health outcomes. This charity has painstakingly assembled stakeholders and resource persons from different walks of life – from the most basic civil works to security oversight – to oversee the project. Ultimately, and with concerted alliances with individuals and organisations of similar disposition, it will expand the scope of its interventions beyond the coastal shores of Lagos, as it continues in its commitment to assist in solving Nigeria’s acute’’, Adenuga.

As part of efforts to make the project a reality, Merry-Gold Water Charity UK recently raised funds in support of the project.

Adenuga expressed optimism that with the support the organisation is receiving more rural communities in Nigeria will have access to clean water.

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