By Omolara Akintoye
As this year’s World Water Day is commemorated globally, decision-makers at all levels in governance have been urged to desist from the water privatisation model and to provide clean quality and potable water free for citizens.
Speaking at a program organised in Lagos to commemorate the event, the Co-ordinator, African Women Water Sanitation and Hygiene Network (AWWASHNET) Veronica Nwanya made this known.
According to Nwanya, who spoke on the theme for this year”Groundwater – making the invisible visible” said the importance of water cannot be overemphasized, because it is an opportunity to celebrate the importance, the usefulness, the benefits of access and the roles groundwater plays to women in hygiene and sanitation system, agriculture, industry, ecosystem, climate change adoption, the environments generally and how women have fared in accessing groundwater,” she said.
Groundwater in the words of the Associate Director, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), Aderonke Ige, for some reason is becoming a faded scenario in villages and communities. “There were days in the community where the only source of water was groundwater, you walk down the stream, lakes and rivers, some from the rock inside the ground, while some we believe comes naturally from the ground, whichever way, groundwater, is the safest and most healthy source of water,”
Speaking further, “To this end, this year’s World Water Day theme is a wake-up call for leaders across every state in Nigeria and Africa to ensure adequate maintenance of the groundwater system for the adequate supply, healthy environmental assessment, and citizen conducive accessible usage”said Ige.
Economically, groundwater according the Chairperson, AWWASHNET, Lady Vickie Uremma Onyekuru must be sustained because it has no cost implication in accessing it. “The Sustainable Development Goal six (6) is to ensure clean, stable and safe water supply and effective water sanitation for all people by the year 2030.
So many things have gone wrong that groundwater is no longer what it used to be. Environmental degradation and pollution have caused more havoc than benefits to groundwater usage” Onyekuru lamented.
All tiers of government are enjoined to spare no effort at ensuring the completion of abandoned water projects all over Nigeria, not leaving behind the groundwater management
AWWASHNet also observed, that the lack of or inadequate availability of clean and safe drinking water is the root cause of some life-threatening illnesses. Lagos State, Nigeria and other African leaders are advised to make groundwater as visible, sustainable and viable as possible.
