Dr. Sylvester Ikhisemojie
| credits: File copy
In the past 10 days or so, we have been treated to news of the outbreak of cholera or, as some others would call it, gastro-enteritis, in parts of Ogun state. The tragedy of the entire business is, of course, the fact that rather than sit down to seek ways of avoiding this kind of sad occurrence, politicians from various parties sought to apportion blames for what caused the outbreak.
In truth, it is not enough to blame others for the development of water infrastructure, which requires meticulous planning and faithful execution over many years, with the expenditure of large sums of money. In many parts of this country, the available water infrastructure is mostly pre-independence. While various governments have built water-works of various sizes around the country, the mode of distribution has depended on colonial infrastructure. In the end, the effort is as good as the method of distribution and this is where the major challenge exists.
As people recognised these failings of government in the last two decades or so, the availability of drinking water has evolved from that provided in tied polythene sachets to the now ubiquitous ‘pure water’ and the increasing availability of various types of bottled water. For many of the producing companies, it is a territorial affair, sometimes with little attention paid to basic hygiene, especially with the relevant government agencies looking the other way. For many of these brands, quality was good on the day of inspection with standards discarded afterwards. It is from a combination of all these difficulties that the average Nigerian is expected to drink, wash and cook without falling ill. It is an unequal struggle and that is why we are poised to hear many more episodes of similar epidemics in the future in many parts of the country.
The contribution of government to these failings is very amazing. The reasons are not far to seek though. Just take a walk through any neighbourhood anywhere in this country and the typical sight described below is likely to be the norm. There are open drains beside roads everywhere. Within those drains run the very pipes which carry our ‘clean’ water from the nearest water-works to our homes and offices. The drains have been so abused in that they also transport run-off water – dirty water from all sorts of washing, dirty water from wherever open air cooking is taking place, water from sewers, overflowing sewage tanks, saliva and urine that are added to the toxic soup already in the gutters; human waste from the hundreds of thousands of urban residents, who, lacking access to toilets, nevertheless do their thing in the open drains and other depressing objects of urban life; dead animals and non-degradable objects, all of these in small bits or large in the gutters. Inside this confusion are pipes which are cracked or have holes bored into them or have broken joints. Water leaks out of these areas of weakness but also, some of the rubbish gets into the pipes, mixes with the water and spreads disease.
Some days ago in our neighbourhood, we chose to carry out a small experiment in our various homes. Each person went to a street in the vicinity and obtained some tap water originating from the public mains. The water was collected in various containers and strained through white pieces of cloth. The harvest was amazing: there were particles of sand, strands of hair, fragments of vegetation or food and various other things we couldn’t identify. There was no microscope available to us otherwise I am now certain that we would have been able to find several disagreeable organisms in the water.
It is altogether a sad realisation that after all the monies spent and the modern water treatment facilities put up around the country, we are truly no better off than we were at independence as far as the availability of safe drinking water is concerned. This is because modern water treatment plants have relied on ancient water pipes to get the water to the end-user with the result that the water is re-contaminated on its way to that user. It is perhaps part of the reasons why many people who have built their own homes opt from the very start not to rely on the public water supply system. Everywhere in the country, these people have sunk boreholes so they can be certain of the quality of water they have access to. In that way, they can be assured of immunity from certain water-borne ailments.
Water is such an important component of life that governments everywhere ought to see it as a critical piece of infrastructural development. For it to be safe for domestic use, it needs to be developed separately from the channels which disgorge waste. That separation, when and if it happens, will help to curb the spectre of water-borne diseases and limit its effects. Water pipes and even mains that already exceed 50 years in age need to be replaced and more modern connections put in place in order to reduce waste, prevent contamination from collateral elements and help to prevent communicable diseases. In addition, the ‘pure water’ companies do need to be more vigorously supervised especially with regards to how they source their water and their process of purification they employ. When we get a hold of these challenges, certain diseases such as cholera; gastro-enteritis, entero-colitis, typhoid fever, hepatitis A, hepatitis E, septicaemia, and so many other ailments will truly then belong to the past. Sadly, there is a strong correlation between poverty, under-development and the availability of clean potable water.
It is important to place this important natural resource in perspective. Those nations which value it the most already realise that sooner than later, as the world’s population expands, there would be a contest for the increasing scarcity of healthy, clean drinking water in the coming decades among nations and different peoples; which could inevitably lead to war. As a consequence of that realisation, they are putting in place various conservation methods that will make clean water more available to more people in a better controlled system designed to minimise waste. Most of the clean water we make available in our part of the world is lost through poor choices of transportation. In effect, no plans are in the works to diminish the effect of more pressure on water resources exerted by a rapidly growing population. Until we recognise the danger inherent in all of these omissions, we will continue periodically to wail and wring our hands in anguish when outbreaks of disease accompany major breaches in the storage and transportation of clean, potable water.
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