WE WALKED FOR WATER (COMMEMORATING WORLD WATER DAY 2019)

On Friday March 22^nd, 2019, HopeSpring Water Charity Foundation partnered with other stakeholders in the water, environment, media and other sectors to celebrate World Water Day 2019 in FCT, Abuja. The sensitization was made up of a team of volunteers I led and it was centered around creating awareness on the need to consider the marginalized groups such as People With Disability (PWD), the elderly, women and children and other groups that are often overlooked or discriminated when planning Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) developments. The program was designed to tackle the water crisis by creating awareness on the inclusion of marginalized persons in getting access to water and sensitizing the public on WASH.

Volunteers headed to Wuse Market, FCT, Abuja

The team walked from the popular Berger Roundabout to Wuse Market in Abuja distributing flyers and enlightening citizens on the need to include everyone in accessing sufficient clean water for their needs.

Sustainable Development Goal 6 stresses on leaving no one behind in getting water for all and clean water is necessary to public health, a healthy environment, poverty reduction, a vibrant economy, and peace and security but today, more than two-third of the populace live without access to clean water. Marginalized groups such as old people, people with disabilities, women, children, refugees, etc. – are often overlooked, and discriminated against as they try to get access to clean, safe water.

For these persons, the opportunity costs of collecting water are high, with far reaching effects. It shortens the time they have available to spend with their families, on child care, other household tasks, or even in leisure activities. For young people, water collection can take time away from their education and in some cases, prevent them from attending school altogether. For workers in an organization, man-hours are lost if water isn’t readily available for use in the premises where they work.

A volunteer

Our country currently ranks No 2 in the global rating on Open Defecation as about 25% of our population are practicing open defecation and WASH services at the rural areas are unsustainable as 46% of all water schemes are non-functional, and the share of our spending on WASH sector has been declining from 0.70% of the GDP in 1990 to about 0.27% in 2015 which is far below the 0.70% at the West African regional level, access to piped water services which was 32% in 1990 has declined to 7% in 2015; access to improved sanitation has also decreased from 38% in 1990 to 29% in 2015 – these stats were given by President Muhammadu Buhari when he declared a state of emergency in Nigeria’s WASH sector last November. However, access to improved water and sanitation still remains a challenge in several cities and communities in the country as is evidenced by HopeSpring Water Charity Foundation’s findings.

Nigeria has been severely affected by poor water quality and flooding and 73% of diarrhoea and enteric disease burden is associated to inadequate WASH conditions. Pollution and rising sea levels have contaminated our water sources and the marginalized groups are always disproportionately affected, these factors can hinder their opportunity to engage in economic activities and affect their health. Water affects several sectors which are critical to achieving the SDGs such as agriculture, economy, health, energy, trade, etc. and sustainable water resource management should be a priority in Nigeria.

Sensitization at Wuse Market, FCT, Abuja

Together, we advocated that the government:

• Continues to work towards achieving the SDGs and improve the water quality for all cities and communities in Nigeria including strengthening policies, strategies and guidelines.
• Ensures equitable access to safe and affordable water, sanitation and hygiene services.
• Protects and restores our water-related ecosystems while also ensuring that we have a sustainable environment.

In a statement I gave to the press, I said we came out en masse to remind citizens and the government about the importance of water and not just any kind of water, but clean water, and how it should be made available to all marginalized groups in the society. I also mentioned that we were doing a road walk and market sensitization to advocate that in line with SDG 6, unequal access to water and sanitation becomes a thing of the past.

During the walk, we had people come to us to ask what the acronym “WASH” stood for and who the marginalized populations were, a staff of the Wuse Market Authority particularly commended our efforts and one of the women commented that “Nigerian landlords should not be allowed to build houses without toilets”. A trader walked up to me and asked me about a placard I held on the need for bosses to provide water for their staff and when I finished explaining to him the advantages of providing clean water for his workers he agreed that it was  very necessary and said he would give it thorough consideration.

From the outcome of the road walk and market sensitization, it was obvious to me that there is still a lot of work to be done in ensuring Nigerians fully understand that clean drinking water and sanitation is a human right. The government, private sector, INGOs, and NGOs should support sustainable water resources management as well as continuously build knowledge and skills on WASH.