Handwashing is a key component for staying safe in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. But how can handwashing be practised effectively when water is a scarce commodity for millions of Nigerians?
Despite the declaration of a state of emergency in the water and sanitation sector by the Federal Government in 2018 and its launch of revitalisation programmes, political will by government at all level is important if Nigerians are to enjoy clean water that is accessible and available.
Commercialisation of water is an issue in Lagos, a state that is feeling the full impact of COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s not just Lagos, water scarcity has struck every state in the country.
Betty Idemudia, a mother of three, recalls her days as an undergraduate at Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State. She vividly remembers without nostalgia that the place to find water was on campus because in the entire town of Ekpoma, finding clean water supply was difficult.
“In the morning, when we are going for lectures we would carry jerrycans with us to fetch water because where we live in town there was no water.” The situation she described was in the period of 1996 to 2001. Has it changed today?Mr UsifoOmoike, an indigene of Ekpoma, says it has not. According to him, water remains a difficulty for people in this town.
Mrs Funmi Ajayi lives in Oko-Oba community in Lagos State. Ajayi, the coordinator of Community Women Initiative told Nigerian Tribune that once upon a time in her community, there was a public water facility that was not working. She said the women who are the ones mostly affected then had to walk four or five streets away to get water. But due to the intervention of an NGO, water supply was restored.” But she quickly added that “there is no free water here! We buy it.” Though the borehole established by OrileAgege LCDA has been functioning for about two or three years, serving the immediate community, there were surrounding communities that lacked water supply. Residents in such areas had to depend on private individuals that put out water taps on major roads.
Assessment of water situation in Nigeria
Sourcing clean water is a global challenge. So much so that the United Nations (UN) had to include it as one of its Sustainable Development Goals, listed as SDG 6: Clean water and sanitation. Sanitation comes into the mix naturally because water is a cleansing agent.
According to UNICEF, “Poor access to improved water and sanitation in Nigeria remains a major contributing factor to high morbidity and mortality rates among children under five. The use of contaminated drinking water and poor sanitary conditions result in increased vulnerability to water-borne diseases, including diarrhoea which leads to deaths of more than 70,000 children under five annually.
WaterAid, and international water charity based in the United Kingdom gives the following statistics on the water situation in Nigeria:
55 million people don’t have clean water; that’s one in every three people. 60,000 children under 5 die a year due to poor water and sanitation.
Records have it that finance institutions like World Bank, African Development Bank, and others like European Union and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), UNICEF, USAID, WaterAid, Action Against Hunger have made financial interventions in Nigeria’s water sector, running into several millions of dollars.
FG’s PEWASH
In his foreword to a report, titled “Promising Practices” a compendium of case studies highlighting best practices in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) interventions under the UNICEF WASH partnership with the Federal Government of Nigeria, with funding support from the European Union and UK Aid, Suleiman Adamu, Minister of Water Resources stated that:
“The Government of Nigeria is committed to the attainment of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)-6 and concretely demonstrated commitment to the SDG 6 by launching the ‘Partnership for Expanded Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (PEWASH) 2016-2030,’ strategy in November 2016 by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.”
The minister described PEWASH as a multi-sector collaborative platform for government agencies and international institutions to improve access to water supply, sanitation and hygiene in rural areas in Nigeria.
The 15-year programme has been broken down into three phases, with phase-I (2016-18) being the preparatory phase; phase-II (2019-2025) being the expansion phase and finally phase-III (2026-2030) is the acceleration phase.
Through this strategy, Nigeria aims to eliminate open defecation by 2025 and achieve 100% access to rural water supply and improved sanitation by 2030.
States that have keyed into the PEWASH programme are eligible for counterpart projects matching. The final signoff for counterpart projects matching for all states will be done by the project key stakeholders (financier, recipient, and the FMWR) for each state.
What’s the story so far regarding PEWASH since its launch over three years ago?
In his assessment, Temple Oraeki, Country Director of Hope Spring Water Charity Foundation, said that more than before there is strong political will from the Federal Government to make impact in water and sanitation matters. However, states have largely not shown the same level of political will that is needed for results to show.
“The issue of WASH is now on the front burner in Nigeria. For some time now, we have not seen the kind of political will it has at the moment. WASH is becoming a household term in Nigeria, and that to me is impressive. People at the helm of affairs at the national level are showing the political will that is needed to see that the Nigerian WASH sector is revitalised.
“But the challenge I am seeing at the moment is the fact that at the state level, governors have not keyed into it. It is obvious from the Clean Naija campaign going on at the moment which is part of the revitalisation plan. You will see that out of 774 local governments in Nigeria, only 20 have been declared open defecation free. And those 20 are in five or six states.”
He added that “if the state governors can show the kind of political will that is being shown at the national level, we will definitely make headway.”
Water, right or commodity?
A media practitioner, Mr Dele Akinsola, who lives in Lagos is of the opinion that water like air is a free gift of nature. Not just that, it a right for humans which must not come at a cost people cannot afford.
He said “They have commercialised water. They believe that if they invest say N1 million then water corporation should generate N2 or N3million. Water supply should be regarded as a social service, but they see it as something that should generate revenue for the state government.”
Mr Akinsola is not alone in his view. A coalition of civil society organisations known as Our Water, Our Right coalition has been campaigning against the privatisation efforts of the Lagos State government in the water sector.
The coalition has teamed up with US-based groups, and recently the latter groups wrote a letter to the Lagos State governor, asking him to halt water privatisation in the state.
In the letter which was dispatched on February 4, 2020 from the US, the groups expressed their solidarity with the people of Lagos and particularly the Our Water Our Right Coalition, explaining that their support is part of a “collectively struggle together to achieve the universal human right to clean, safe drinking water.”
Signatories to the letter are Rev Jesse Jackson, President of Rainbow Coalition; Nayyirah Shariff, Director of Flint Rising, among others.
They called on the Sanwo-Olu administration to abandon its efforts at water privatisation and listen to the voices of the people who are demanding a public water system with the investment needed to work for all Lagosians. They said they have equally requested that the Congressional Black Caucus of the US Congress use its full influence to bring attention to the demands of the Our Water Our Rights Coalition in Nigeria and other community-based grassroots campaigns across the continent.
Earlier, Akinbode Oluwafemi, ERA/FoEN Deputy Executive Director explained that nearly eight months into the life of the Sanwo-Olu administration, demands by the Our Water Our Right Coalition for a blue print on how to resolve the water crisis and recommendations on real solutions, have not elicited any response.
Professor Godson Ana, a professor of Environmental Health Sciences stated that “it is obvious that government has failed when it comes to provision of water. In those days when we were young, pipeborne water was available in our community. But today there is no longer community water supply. Now everyone is on their own – you sink well, borehole or buy water! Lack of water affects hygiene.”
He added that it was only logical that if Nigerians are to maintain hygiene and see a quick end to the COVID-19 pandemic, community water supply must become a priority to the government of the day.
Oraeki said, “The right to safe water has become even more cogent than ever imagined. Denying people’s right to water at this period of COVID-19 pandemic, when all they need is water to wash hands and remain hydrated, is gross injustice!”
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