In Nigeria, The Thirst Persists | World Water Day by Odiawa Ai

As the world lauds the 2024 World Water Day on Friday, most Nigerians are still wrestling with severe cases of water shortage, particularly in the rural areas. With more than 60 per cent of the nation canvassed in water, it is stunning that the nation still wrestles with severe water problems. Government at all levels ought to implement measures to expand access to potable water.

In the huge breadth of Nigeria, a need keeps on escaping a large number of its citizens: potable water. Thus, the 2024 World Water Day, with the theme, ‘Water for Peace,’ holds profound importance for Nigeria, where outlaws and terrorists have displaced thousands and turned them to refugees in their own land. People in this class do not have access to clean water for their day-to-day needs.

Water holds a crucial role in fostering peace, prosperity, and stalling conflict, however in Nigeria, this is an unrealistic fantasy.

Access to clean water in this case implies the percentage of people using drinking water from a better source that is accessible on premises, accessible when needed, and free from waste and priority chemical pollution. Improved water sources incorporate piped water, boreholes, safeguarded dug wells, safeguarded springs, and packaged water.

In 2018, Nigeria’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene sector was declared to be in a state of emergency and roughly 60 million Nigerians were living without access to drinking water.

Women and girls experience disproportionately from the absence of satisfactory wash services. They bear the weight of water assortment over long distances, which has been connected with adverse consequences on well-being, school attendance, and a higher gamble of gender-based brutality.

Notwithstanding being an indispensable part of human survival and development, access to clean water remains a far-off dream for many Nigerians, with extensive consequences for public health, economic productivity, and social well-being.

The shortage of potable drinking water in Nigeria is a complex issue established in a mix of elements, including deficient infrastructure, poor governance, rapid urbanization, and environmental debasement. Across both rural and metropolitan areas, communities wrestle with unreliable or non-existent water supply frameworks, compelling inhabitants to depend on hazardous options like untreated surface water, contaminated wells, or expensive bottled water.

Subsequently, millions of Nigerians are exposed to waterborne diseases such as cholera, typhoid fever, and diarrhea.

While metropolitan centres may have relatively better access to piped water systems, rural communities frequently depend on unprotected wells or surface water sources, prone to human and industrial waste defilement. Lacking sanitation facilities further compound the issue, adding to the spread of waterborne sicknesses and perpetuating a pattern of poverty and ill health.

UNESCO has set a target for nations to guarantee all-inclusive access to clean water and sanitation by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Be that as it may, Nigeria is slacking in meeting this goal, with progress hampered by fundamental challenges such as corruption, mismanagement of resources, and insufficient investment in water infrastructure.

The consequences of water shortage stretch out beyond public health, influencing various aspects of life in Nigeria. Inadequate access to clean water hampers economic productivity, particularly in sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, and tourism, where water is fundamental for irrigation, production processes, and hygiene.

To really address the shortage of potable drinking water in Nigeria, joint endeavors are required at both the national and local levels. The government must zero in on water supply and sanitation infrastructure development, allot adequate resources to the sector, and improve transparency and accountability in water management. Investments in technologies such as water treatment plants, piped water networks, and wastewater treatment facilities are fundamental to expanding access to clean water and lessening the weight of waterborne illnesses.