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Tag: Sachet water

  • Before Lagos bans sachet water and other single-use plastics

    Before Lagos bans sachet water and other single-use plastics

    • By Inyene Nkanta

    Recently, the Lagos State government announced intentions to ban sachet water, commonly known as pure water and other single-use plastics beginning January 2025. This decision is part of a broader environmental effort to address the significant plastic waste problem, which clogs drainage systems, contributes to flooding, and harms marine ecosystems. According to what I read, the government is yet to finalize specific alternatives to replace sachet water and other plastics. Although, they have started consulting with stakeholders including manufacturers and waste management groups to develop sustainable packaging alternatives.

    As a circular economy expert, I am aware and conscious of the environmental importance of reducing waste in Nigeria, particularly in Lagos State. But I also understand the economic and societal consequences of blatant prohibitions like this one. The government ban on sachet water seems a little extreme to me, particularly when there are no immediate alternative solutions and the timing is rather too short to implement this. Here are some of the reasons why I think, it is a little too extreme;

    Accessibility and Affordability: Sachet water is often a vital source of affordable drinking water in many communities in Nigeria. Same, with majority of households in Lagos State; a ban could disproportionately impact low-income groups who rely on sachet water for daily hydration.

    Economic Impact: The sachet water industry supports a wide range of jobs, from small scale producers to informal vendors. A sudden ban could cause job losses and negatively impact livelihoods without providing alternative solutions or transitional support.

    Insufficient Infrastructure: In many areas in Lagos State, clean, piped water systems are inadequate, unreliable and even not available. Sachet water serves as a stopgap solution, and without addressing this underlying issue, the ban may cause unintended hardships on the population.

    Waste Management Gaps: Rather than banning sachet water, the government could focus on improving waste collection and recycling systems, which would be a circular economy friendly approach. Promoting the collection, reuse, or recycling of sachet waste would help reduce pollution while keeping this accessible water supply available for majority of Lagosians.

    I am advocating that the Lagos State government focus on a more balanced approach towards this ban. Here are some of my suggestions for a more balanced approach;

    Gradually reducing the use of sachet water while introducing sustainable alternatives. For example, rather than having an abrupt ban, a gradual phase out of sachet water will give time for developing alternatives, such as affordable, reusable containers or bottled water made from biodegradable materials, and improving infrastructure, such as reliable piped water supply or communal water dispensers in areas that rely heavily on sachet water.

    Promoting Innovation and Circular Economy Solutions: Governments can give some incentives towards innovation by encouraging companies to invest in bio-degradable packaging, eco-friendly alternatives or alternative water delivery systems.

    By investing in research and development, businesses can contribute to reducing waste without losing their customer base.

    Additionally, government can introduce Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policies where producers take responsibility for the collection and recycling of sachets. This can create a closed loop system where materials are continuously reused.

    Education and Waste Management: Focus on education around waste disposal, recycling programs and product take back schemes.

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    Government can build a Waste Management Capacity which will likely increase investments in waste management systems. Furthermore, government can introduce a community based recycling initiatives, where local groups collect and recycle sachets. Last but not the least; government can create public awareness campaigns to educate people about proper disposal and recycling methods. This can create a behavioural shift towards responsible waste management.

    Let’s look at some of the economic and social considerations. The emphasis of the potential economic fallout of an immediate ban cannot be overlooked as this ban will cause job loss and disruption in the informal economy. Therefore, it is imperative that the Lagos State government invest in retraining and reskilling programs for those affected, helping them transition into new roles in the water distribution system and the recycling industry. Additionally, there is need to support the small businesses to adapt to the new regulations by providing financial assistance or subsidies for eco-friendly packaging.

    In conclusion, I believe that these approaches can foster a cleaner environment while being mindful of economic and social realities.

    The Lagos State government is able to protect both the environment and the economic well-being of those dependent on the sachet water industry. This creates a more holistic, sustainable solution that aligns with circular economy principles.

    • Dr Nkanta is lecturer in Circular Economy, Sustainability and Entrepreneurship, University of the West of Scotland.
  • Hard times await faulty ‘pure water’ producers

    Hard times await faulty ‘pure water’ producers

    Lagos sachet water manufacturers have been having a good time. HANNAH OJO writes that, sequel to a publication in The Nation on the dangers of contaminated sachet water brands; the Lagos State Water Regulatory Commission (LSWRC) has warned that it will raid faulty water service providers from  October 1

    Sachet water brands manufacturers who fail to comply with set standards for potable water production laid down by the Lagos State Water Regulatory Commission (LSWRC) will soon have their plants shut down, The Nation learnt.

    The Executive-Secretary, Lagos State Water Regulatory Commission, Mr Ahmed Kabiru Abdullahi, broke the news in his office in Alausa, Ikeja during an exclusive chat with The Nation.

    The development is sequel to a two-part investigation on contaminated sachet water brands in Lagos published in The Nation on August 19 and September 2.

    During the investigation, 30 samples of sachet water were randomly selected across various districts of the state. The water samples, selected between the months of May and August this year, were contracted to the University of Lagos Consult Limited for a laboratory test.

    The physical, chemical and microbiological characteristics of each sample were examined by a registered public analyst and chartered chemist from the Chemistry Department of the University of Lagos. The laboratory tests returned 15 faulted samples which showed presence of contaminants such as pathogenic coliforms, high microbial loads and acidity.

    Mr Abdullahi, who commended the report which he described as positive, said the state has zero-tolerance for water service providers who do not meet the hygiene status and safety parameters set for producers of potable water.

    “We have taken some water producers to court in the past. We have shut down the facilities of many, including prominent table water brands. We’ll start another raid from Sunday, October 1 and we shall prosecute defaulters who fail to comply with the laid down standards. Our officers are already going round and we are set for action,” he said.

    Abdullahi, who hinted on a stakeholders’ meeting to be convened soon to address challenges experienced by providers of water service also revealed that the agency would be collaborating with the Association of Table Water Producers (ATWAP) to fish out sachet water brands with fake addresses and registration numbers.

    A copy of the Investigative report was pasted on the LSWRC’s notice board in Alausa when the reporter visited.

    In a related development, Mrs. Clementina Ativie, the National President, Association of Table Water Producers (ATWAP) told The Nation that members of the association, led by the Lagos State chapter President, Alhaji Yisa Adeoye commenced an inspection of sachet water factories after the report was published.

    “At the moment, we have covered 20 zones and visited over 1,000 ‘pure water’ factories. We are checking each factory to examine the standard of their environment and to know if they have complied with the laid down rules and regulations with regard to hygiene. The visit was aimed at identifying genuine water producers and to ensure that citizens are not fed with poison.

    “We are also working towards ensuring that all water producers subject their water samples to a laboratory test at least three times in a year to examine the chemical and physical parameters”, she said.

    Ativie, who also revealed that the association would soon launch a coded symbol and number which would be used to fight fake water producers in the industry, stated that members of the association will not tolerate extortion from any quarter.

    Social media reactions, which trailed the publication of the story also suggested that the investigation should be extended to producers of bottled water and water service producers outside Lagos State.

    Ms Anu Onasanya, posted on twitter that factories with contaminated samples should be shut down by the government till their process can be revamped and vetted by the Ministry of Health.

     

    At risk of diseases and terminal illnesses

     

    Experts have maintained that besides water-borne diseases such as typhoid, diarrhea, cholera and hepatitis which people could contact by drinking contaminated packaged water, it can also expose the body to carcinogenic agents.

    The Nation learnt that the carcinogenic agents find their way into human body when the polythene bag used in packaging the water is of low quality and discharges dangerous agents into the water while being exposed to sunlight or stored in an unwholesome condition.

    Findings revealed that the drive for profit often makes many manufacturers of sachet water patronise low-quality polythene bags, which causes dissolution of chemical into the water.

    Interpreting the health implications of the contaminants found in the tested water samples, Mr Oluwole Adedeji, a Professor of Chemical Pathology at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), stated that low pH in water represents acidity.

    “pH is the concentration of hydrogen iron which represents acidity. The neutral pH is seven. Anything below seven is acidic. Anything above seven is basic and denotes alkalinity,” he said.

    The consultant also described the odour as a product of metabolism which shows some form of decay with grave implications for the human body if ingested through contaminated water.

    On the health implications of coliforms and other forms of pathogenic bacteria, he maintained that the coliform count in potable water should not go beyond a certain percentage.

    “Our intestines have what is called the resident coliform. But when immunity is reduced, they become a problem; adding more from outside means exposing the body to higher risks of toxic effects, especially when a person is stressed.

    “Most of these bags have pores. They have holes which may not be visible to the human eye, which allow some elements in the environment to diffuse gradually into the water. The chemicals can be very carcinogenic,” Prof Adedeji said as he connects poorly packaged sachet water with cancer and other terminal illnesses associated with the lungs, liver and the heart.

    Although there are strident measures laid down by regulatory agencies such as the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the Lagos State Water Regulatory Commission; enforcement of these standards is not often adhered to, findings have revealed.

    With the acute water shortage in Lagos State owing to the inability of the state’s water corporation to supply potable water to majority of the residents, there is a high reliance on sachet water as a means of potable water by over 70 per cent of the citizens.

    In a twitter poll conducted by the reporter on potable water source for Lagos residents, 44 per cent of respondents chose sachet water as their source of potable water while 39 per cent chose boreholes.

    Another 12 per cent decided on bottled water and the lowest vote stands at six per cent, representing those who source potable water from the Lagos State Water Corporation.

    Majority of producers of sachet water interviewed by The Nation source their water from boreholes.

     

  • Akanu Ibiam Poly students make table water

    Akanu Ibiam Poly students make table water

    To ensure that its students are employable or self-employed after graduation, the Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic Uwana, Ebonyi State, established a department for entrepreneurial studies.

    The plan worked. The department has now procured its own water purification machine for the production of bottled table and sachet water. The processing plant is run by the students themselves, and their products are already sold within the school and Afikpo community with plans to extend the market farther afield to other parts of the state and beyond.

    The Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, (TET-FUND), Dr Abdullahi Bichi Baffa commissioned the facility during an assessment tour of the facilities with a promise to make more funds available to the institution to enable it continue the laudable entrepreneurial programme.

    He noted that the programme is in line with the President Muhammadu Buhari government’s agenda on empowering students and graduates with the requisite skills and knowhow to become job creators upon graduation and by so doing bridging the unemployment gap in the country.

    Baffa said the TET-FUND has been making giant strides in the tertiary education sector of the country by providing funds for the upgrade of facilities and building the capacity of the lecturers.

    He said, “Perhaps the best measure is for anyone to work into any campus of any university, polytechnic or college of education in the country whether state or federal government owned and one will see the very clear impact of TET-FUND. I can say without any fear of contradiction that more than 60 percent of the physical infrastructure in any tertiary education institution is provided by TET-FUND. Just imagine our institutions without TET-FUND support, probably they would have crumbled.”

    The Executive Director also commissioned other facilities built by the institution which include twin lecture theatre halls with 3000 sitting capacity, school of environmental design and technology housing seven different programmes, a workshop for the animal production department of the institution.

    He expressed satisfaction on the use of the funds by the institution and promised that TETFUND will expedite action on outstanding 2014, 2015 and 2016 funds yet to be accessed by the institution to enable it complete some ongoing projects and commence new ones.

    Earlier, while receiving the Executive Secretary, the Rector of the institution, Ven. Ogbonnaya Ibe-Enwo thanked TET-FUND for the support it have been giving the institution in the past and appealed for release of more funds to enable it carry our more projects and complete ongoing one.

    Members of the board of the institution led by the Chairman, Prof J.T. Orkar and Director of Administration and Training of Nigeria Television Authority, Dr Steve Egbo joined the Rector in receiving the Executive Secretary.

  • WAR IN ABUJA Eagles to be pelted with sachet water

    WAR IN ABUJA Eagles to be pelted with sachet water

    Plans have been concluded with the renting of an organised crowd of demonstrators to use today’s match of the Super Eagles to demonstrate against the continued stay of Stephen Keshi. The team are likely to be pelted with pure water sachets during the match which the team may lose.

    Sources close to the secretariat of the team of three  told gongnews.com that those hired have been financially induced to deliver the task. “Stephen Keshi must go. The plan of humiliating the gaffer out of the national team has been concluded.

    In their bid to actualise their plan of getting him out at all cost, the group of highly connected football aficionados and their paid acolytes have concluded plans to embarrass the coach and the players during today’s African Nations Cup qualifier against Sudan in Abuja.

    To them, the nation can be humiliated provided it provides the leeway of sacrificing the coach, who they see as the problem of the nation’s football.

    These group of people led by a member of the board of the NFF, have consequently decided to rent a crowd of protesters to call for the immediate sack of coach Keshi and the appointment of an interim national coach to handle the remaining matches.

    “As far as we are concerned, this is payback time. He betrayed Aminu Maigari and the former board and thinks he can get away with it. We will teach him a lesson he will never forget”, he said jokingly.

    The placards and t-shirts for the demonstrations have been produced and distributed to the rented crowd, who will be deployed on match day to give the team serious psychological problems that will make them look as if they are playing away instead of home. The intention is to create the impression of a man that has lost total support.

    “Keshi and the players will be pelted with sachet water to humiliate them since the match will be transmitted live to the whole of Africa. The entire Africa will see that he is finished and there will be nowhere for him to hide”.

    The demonstration is aimed at further demoralising the team and ensuring that Nigeria is defeated, that is the only condition that will compel the Federal Government to back off from protecting him.

    “Our hands are tied on the issue of Keshi. Hence, the only way Stephen Keshi who has the backing of the government can be sacked is the defeat of Nigeria by Sudan on Wednesday at home and we have resolved to work for the Sudanese to actualise our plan,” said the source.

    The newly elected NFF president, Amaju Pinnick, is alleged to have boasted of his determination to do away with the coach. He told close associates that “we have Keshi where we want him. One more match and he will be history”. This lays credence to the  scheme.

  • ‘Sachet water causes cholera’

    The Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) has attributed the recent outbreak of cholera in some parts of Nigeria to the consumption of sachet water (popularly called pure water).

    Other causes of the disease, according to the association, are poverty, overpopulation and unhygienic environment.

    The Kwara State Chairman of the association, Chief Abdulmojeed Oderinde, addressed reporters yesterday in Ilorin, the state capital, ahead of the association’s 86th national conference.

    He noted that cholera is caused by a lack of access to potable water, among other factors.

    The PSN chairman urged elected office holders in three tiers of government to provide potable water.

    He said nobody should consume sachet water, which he said was mostly unhygienic, if they had access to potable water.

    The PSN chairman condemned salary disparity among health workers in the state.

    He noted that in a situation where a medical doctor earned N180,000 monthly, while a pharmacist got N45,000, was discouraging.

    According to him, of the 150 pharmacists in the state, only a few are employed in the health sector.

    Oderinde stressed that the development had led many qualified pharmacists to migrate to neighbouring states.

    He also said of the 16,000 pharmacists in the country, 5,000 of them practised outside Nigeria, adding that an average of one pharmacist was available to about 10,000 people.

    He urged the government to employ more pharmacists, saying there cannot be dividends on money spent on health sector without the right personnel.