As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to mark the 2016 World Water Day, a state of the world’s water report by the WaterAid says an estimated 57.7 million of the Nigeria population still lack access to good water.
The report also stated that the country ranks third in the world on a list of the top ten countries with the greatest numbers of people living without access to safe water.
Country representative, Dr. Michael Ojo, in Abuja on Monday, said 650 million people in the world lack access to clean water and more than 2.3 billion people around the world do not have access to basic sanitation.
“Tens of millions of people are still unserved with their basic human right to safe water, even in countries that have made the most impressive progress,” it stated.
The report showed that people who rely on tanker truck for water supply could spend as much as 45 percent of their daily income on water to get recommended daily minimum supply, while in some world’s poorest countries, families relying on black-market vendors spend up to 100 times as much on water as those reached by government-subsidised tap stands.
While blaming the inability of governments to provide safe water for its citizens, the group nations of the world must make access to good water a priority in their policy frameworks.
“On this World WaterDay, it is shocking to realise that a life essential such as water can cost a poor person in the developing world as much as half of their income, for an amount that is about one-third of average daily use in the developed world.
“Clean drinking water is a right yet an estimated 31% of people in Nigeria are still living without access to clean water. Increased competition for water resources and climate change are only exacerbating the crisis, which along with lack of sanitation is responsible for the deaths of more than 68,000 children under five each year in the country.
“On World Water Day, we call upon our government and leaders around the world to take urgent action towards keeping the promises made in the UN Global Goals on Sustainable Development, and ensure everyone is able to realise their right to access to clean water by 2030.”
As part of plans by the federal government to create opportunities for Nigerians through water and sanitation industry, the Minister of Water Resources, Engr. Suleiman Adamu, said the gaps and challenges created by lack of access to water and sanitation actually represent trappings of opportunities for the country.
Speaking at a walk to mark the 2016 World Water Day, themed Water and Jobs: Potentials in the Water Sector for Sustainable Socio- economic Development, in Abuja, Adamu stated that these untapped opportunities have kindled the ministry’s interest in instituting a seamless mechanism for mainstreaming the water and sanitation sector in the country’s economic process.
“Every region and state in Nigeria has abundant potentials for creating sustainable jobs in the water and sanitation sector in the water and sanitation sector in the country. We shall map these opportunities and come up with a roadmap for exploring them. We shall also work with other key government ministers and organs with a view to making this initiative sustainable and multi-sectoral” he said.
