Non Government Organisation, Rite Place Health has called for collaboration in providing access to portable water in Nigerian communities.
Executive Director, Pharm. Chukwumezie Okechukwu Okolo said some areas in the country don’t have access to water, stating that access to water without quality produces waterborne diseases like cholera and typhoid.
“So, it is important for us to have access to water and ensure that it is of high quality. That is the reason stakeholders are gathered to come up with strategies to eradicate water borne diseases within our space, beginning with Nigeria”, he said at the 2024 Water Conference held on Wednesday, in Abuja, the Nigerian capital.
With the event drawing participants from African countries like Malawi and Uganda, Pharm. Okolo said the essence of the conference is to bring quality to the table, bordering on discussions on access to portable water. “We want people to understand that without quality, access to portable water will be difficult”, he stated.
“It is not just the responsibility of the government. There need to be community participation. This is more like a BPP call so that individuals and communities can join hands with the government to be the vanguard of quality water and contribute in ensuring drinkable quality water.
“The challenge of portable water is everywhere, including capital cities. If we can’t find quality water in our cities, what will now be the fate of those in rural areas? We are not looking for where the issues are, they are all over the place already.
“People just go behind their houses and package water, label it and sell in the name of business. They sneak these unhygienic products and adulterate the market, causing trust issues because, buyers will find it hard to identify which one to trust or not. We all need to join efforts, collaborate and watch out for these activities” he said.
Rukayah Wamakko, the Executive Secretary, FCT Primary Health Care Board said regulatory agencies must come up with strategies in ensuring that water production is of the highest standards. She said that activities like regular checkups, monitoring and evaluation, unannounced visits to water production factories must should be intensified and get the true picture of the realities on ground.
“It is one thing to regulate and another to maintain. We lack maintenance culture in Nigeria. If the right maintenance is put into practice, there will be improvement”, she said.
“The system is very corrupt and has seen bribery playing sway to get fake accreditation. The authorities are not even aware of this. Some of the machines used for production may either be outdated or obsolete but, they don’t care, hence they’ve gotten accreditation. Beyond accreditation, there must be close monitoring and evaluation”, Mrs.Wamakko added.
She advised that when issues of waterborne diseases are discussed, the infectious or communicable or non-comunicable aspects of it should be looked at.
She identified heavy chemicals found in either rain or dug water must be regulated for human consumption, and if not regulated, it causes harm to the body circulatory system.
“It causes narrowing and thickening of the blood vessels and affects the blood circulation. Once the pipe of the blood vessels is being narrowed, there will be difficulty for the heart to beat and pump.
“Diabetic persons are prone to all these because of the three radicals that are there in the body, they will remain in circulation, in addition to the chemicals that are already been taken from the water to the body. It worsens the situation of the diabetic patients.
“So, non communicable diseases can be caused by water that is not purified, taken into the body.
“It’s intentional that our health care system be arranged like the tiers of government that we have, where we have primary healthcare at the local government and ward level, the secondary facility at the state level and the tertiary at the federal level – from the grassroots to the upper level.
“We are doing a lot to ensure that community residents from the village to ward level, local government level, state and federal levels get a better understanding of clean water.
“At the same time, we need to assist the poor at the rural areas to use the surrounding water they have and meet their needs. We have the resources in this country, as long as the will is there. I believe it’s doable.
“We need to have private public partnership to invest in safe portable water in our environment. Like I said, advocacy, communication, and social mobilisation are important to make the community participate and understand that their lives are in their hands”, Mrs. Wamakko concluded.
Dr. Ayodele Bankole James, Registrar/CEO, African Institute of Public Health Professionals said lack of portable water is a problem in the country, one of the aims of converging for the conference.
“You can’t talk about public health without community engagement and advocacy to achieve our aim, especially when it has to do with World Health Organisation (WHO), Sustainable Development Goals (3), talking about accessing health care services for everyone, irrespective of age”, he posited.
“You discover that most of the water gotten from boreholes are not safe for drinking or consumption. Most of the persons that these boreholes are dug for, are not aware they are not suitable for drinking”.
He called for a regulatory agency saddled with the responsibility of certifiying water from boreholes to be safe for drinking. Doing so he said will aid in achieving the aim of having portable water.
“A situation when the borehole is drilled, with an agency passing it fit, it (the agency) can be going from home to home, ensuring that the water coming out are safe”, he said.
Professor Odili said the relationship between water and cardiovascular diseases is mainly through heavy metals, not really infective agents. He encouraged participants at the conference to note that heavy metals, especially accumulation of LED in water is a risk factor for hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases.
Revealing that water might look clean and not infected, yet, lack quality, he enumerated that addressing the challenge should stem from a holistic approach – drilling stage of the boreholes, to producing bottled and sachet water, “Quality measures are not usually obeyed”, he stated.
“We should up our game. A lot still needs to be done. We need to find out what’s happening. We need to know the quality of the water available and the regulatory agency – NAFDAC and the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation and ensure that standards are met in water production.
“For those of us in research institutions, we should provide studies into what affect us daily. People in Chemistry, Biochemistry, Public Health should look at the quality of water around us. After research, parts of it should be disseminated amongst peers and invite the regulatory agencies”, he concluded.