Nigerian governments have been failing in an important aspect of governance. Beyond failing to provide piped water to Nigerians’ homes, farms and industries, the government also fails to hold any meaningful conversation on this issue, which has life-and-death implications for Nigerian citizens.
Yet, Nigeria has abundant water resources that should be harnessed for the well-being of all Nigerians living in the industrialised urban centres or the rural farming communities where Nigerians live and earn their livelihood.
Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates indicate the total water bodies in Nigeria are about 149,919 square kilometres, or about 14.99 million hectares, or 15.9 per cent of the land and water area, spread across the Niger, Lake Chad, Southwestern Littoral and Southeastern Littoral basins.
Proof that there is plenty of water for everyone and every purpose in Nigeria is evident in the Atlantic Ocean coastline that runs for 853 kilometres, the Continental Shelf that covers roughly 46,300 square kilometres, the freshwater, and the 32.215 kilometres of wetlands covering yet another 12.7 million hectares.
Though there is an estimated 87 billion cubic metres of annual recharge of groundwater across the eight main hydrogeological sedimentary and crystalline basement areas in the country, Nigerians hardly have enough water to drink, cook or run their industries, and no one in government appears to be giving serious thought to the deficiency.
While Northern Nigeria suffers physical water scarcity because of drought, the shrinkage of Lake Chad, heavy metal pollution from indiscriminate mining and the displacement of people to areas with lower water availability due to insurgency, terrorism, banditry and farmer-herder clashes, Southern Nigeria has its own explanation for its water scarcity.
Southern Nigeria’s water shortage is traceable to crude petroleum spills, gas flaring and heavy metal leaks; industrial effluents and poor management of dumpsites and damage to the fragile water infrastructure, a result of heavy seasonal floods.
The unavailability of pipe-borne water in most of Nigeria’s homes and industries reminds one of the phrase “Water, water, everywhere… nor a drop to drink,” coming from the poem, “The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner,” written by poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1798.
One could justifiably classify Nigerians who lack potable water as Coleridge’s thirsty sailors who were surrounded by salty ocean water that is regrettably unfit for drinking. The poem itself should be read as a dirge or lament for the “death” of public waterworks throughout Nigeria.
It is indeed strange that there’s hardly anyone in government that pays attention to the issue of water, beyond the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation that pretends that it is concerned with managing the water resources to power hydroelectricity, provide access to safe water and promote adequate sanitation.
The failure of municipal waterworks, run by state governments, has led Nigerian citizens to sink boreholes in their homes and business premises. Even political aspirants, possibly realising that they wouldn’t be able to provide pipe-borne water whenever they got into office, sometimes opted to sink boreholes for their constituents.
Nigerians who think boreholes or wells may not be hygienic often boil the water or take the alternative route of buying “pure water” in sachets, bottled water, or even a water dispenser with its giant bottle.
It’s all looking like the way the government’s failure has led Nigerians to hire their own private security guards and construct or fix the roads to their homes, procuring generating sets (or solar inverters) to provide electricity for their homes and industries.
This lazy approach of providing piped-borne water for Nigerian citizens is clear evidence of an unserious political class that is unable to differentiate between the big picture of governance and the Lilliputian acts of people with little vision.
Nigerians who either had pipe-borne water in their homes or had public water taps on the streets in their neighbourhoods as kids have difficulty understanding why things have gone south with the provision of municipal water supply.
Some may remember that water that used to run freely in residential homes and industrial premises in Ikeja in the 1970s was diverted to provide water for participants and guests during Festac 77 in 1977. The failure to return the pipe-borne water led to Ikeja homes and industrial premises having to sink boreholes.
Apart from being an inadequate option, the sinking of boreholes not only has a negative environmental impact on the soil substructure, but it also has implications for the health of unwary Nigerians. Polluted content from human waste deposited in septic tanks in homes can seep into the boreholes and contaminate the water therein.
In 2022, the World Health Organisation said that about 1.7 billion people, some of whom will likely be Nigerians with boreholes and septic tanks in their homes, drink water that is contaminated with feces. WHO adds that microbial contamination from faeces mixing with water poses the greatest risk to water safety.
Medical virologists may likely argue that the best way for citizens to prevent diarrheal diseases, acute respiratory infections and such other tropical diseases is to enhance their personal hygiene with safe and sufficient water.
By the way, water in boreholes is not always treated before it is used for drinking, cooking, washing or used for sensitive chemical processes in industries like food processing or pharmaceutical manufacturing companies that must perforce depend on uncontaminated and hygienic water.
The cheek of it all is that shameless government operatives often dispatch demand notes to Nigerian citizens, who no longer receive pipe-borne water in their homes, to pay the state or local government for sinking boreholes in their homes or industrial premises.
Sometimes, one wonders if those who run Nigeria’s bureaucracies understand the meaning of governance or even have the milk of human kindness to have compassion for the plight of their compatriots who are suffering under the yoke of poor governance and multiple taxation.
As Nigerians approach the 2027 General Elections, it may be apt to require each politician who is contesting to be president, governor or legislator to tell them what they plan to do with regard to providing regular and adequate piped-borne water for their households and industries.
And really, to deliver piped-borne water to Nigerian homes and industries, all the politicians have to do is look for the appropriate technology and the experts who can install and run it efficiently and effectively. If the government thinks that its bureaucrats cannot deliver this all-important “commodity,” it should concession it to private investors.
Everyone has seen the wonder that Dangote Refinery has done with the mandate that Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited held for decades without positive results. Dangote Refinery has managed to stabilise the supply of petroleum products in Nigeria.
The most important thing is that Nigerians should always have access to potable, clean and hygienic water at all times and wherever they may be. The WHO has declared that safe, accessible water, defined as a human right, is vital for public health, economic growth and poverty reduction.
The media and civil society activists should confront politicians seeking political mandates with the glaring potable water deficit and demand to know their take.
X:@lekansote1, lekansote.com
Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).
