The Nation Newspaper

Tag: water

  • NBC launches Water Conservation Clubs in schools

    NBC launches Water Conservation Clubs in schools

    The Nigerian Bottling Company Limited (NBC) has reiterated its commitment to set up water conservation clubs in some secondary schools across the country to further drive its water stewardship programme.

    Head, Public Affairs and Communications of NBC, Mr. Uzo Odenigbo, made this known at the United Nation’s World Water Day in Owerri and Kaduna.

    Over 200 pupils from 10 public secondary schools attended the event, which has as theme, Water for sustainable development.

    The pupils toured the company’s water effluence treatment plants to understudy water conservation initiatives of NBC to replicate them in their schools and communities.

    Odenigbo said the World Water Day presents a platform for the firm to enlist water ambassadors in its communities who would partner with the company in propagating the message of safe water practices. He said NBC was committed to sustainable partnerships and integrated approaches to solving water problems in its communities under its water stewardship programme, adding that the task of conserving finite natural resources such as water is everybody’s responsibility.

    While acknowledging that water forms a significant part of NBC’s operations, Odenigbo enumerated the company’s water conservation initiatives to include: installation of waste water treatment plants in all its bottling plants across the country to ensure only water that can sustain aquatic and plant life is released back to the environment; increased focus on improving access to safe drinking water in over 20 communities through the provision of boreholes and water storage facilities, benefitting about 300,000 people across the country and reducing the company’s water use ratio from 5.15 in 2008 to 2.42 in 2014.

    “This year, we have gone a step further to ensure the sustainability of our  awareness campaign on safe water practices with the students, by encouraging and supporting them to start water conservation clubs in their schools,” he added.

    Managing Director of NBC, Mr. Ben Langat, said the organisation’s programmes for the clubs would provide opportunity for its workers to share knowledge with young people.

    “The water conservation clubs will further provide volunteering opportunities for our colleagues to donate their time and expertise to aid knowledge transfer on safe water practices among students in a sustainable way,” he said.

     

  • Face up to the water challenge – Stakeholders urge politicians

    Face up to the water challenge – Stakeholders urge politicians

    Stakeholders in the water sector have expressed concern over the lack of interest in tackling water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) issues by politicians in the run up to the general elections. The various candidates vying for positions, they say, have not given priority to WASH in their campaigns. The stakeholders have called on candidates vying for various positions to include ways on how to tackle WASH issues in Nigeria rather than just to canvass for votes from the electorates.

    They explained that access to basic social amenities such as safe drinking water; sanitation and hygiene remain the responsibility of governments, whether federal or state.

    The Country Representative of an international agency, WaterAid Nigeria, Dr. Michael Ojo, said recently that Nigeria remains one of only a handful of countries around the world where access to basic sanitation is actually falling rather than rising.

    According to him, only 28 per cent of the population has access to basic sanitation (over 100 million people have no access to improved sanitation). He explained that access to sanitation has continued to decrease from 37 per cent in 1990 to 32 per cent in 2000 and just 28 per cent in 2012.

    Ojo said that 23 per cent practice open defecation (nearly 40 million people) while 36 per cent lack access to improved water sources (over 60 million)and around 68,000 children under the age of five in Nigeria die from diseases caused by the nation’s poor levels of access to water, sanitation and hygiene.

    These figures, he says, are alarming; adding that government at all levels must partner to improve access to safe water supply and sanitation. He stressed the need for politicians to not only seek for votes, he urged them to serve the people who put them there by providing services that will improve the lives of the people.

    He said: “We call on our own leaders here to embrace the spirit of the Kigali Action Plan and invest the resources needed to provide safe water, sanitation and hygiene for its people.”

    Although, issues of access to safe water supply, lies with the state, and local government, the Federal Government through intervention can assist. This is because most communities in Nigeria cannot be accessed by state or local government.

    For example, Wentul and Patishi communities, have same thing in commonalities: No water. No sanitation facilities. No medical care. These lack of basic social amenities make living a daily struggle. People in the two communities located in Pankshin Local Government, Jos South, walk a far distance before they can access water from a stream.

    The communities are in dire need of basic amenities of life. The women suffer most. An octogenarian was seen by this reporter, trying to fetch water from what looked like an underground stream. The water suffers in both quality and purity.

    Hashima, a 12 year-old SS3 student, is another member who lives in the community. She explained that she wakes up 5am daily in other to access water from the rustic well, not far from her house. The result is that she arrives at school late.

    “This is what I do every morning,” she explained in incoherent English. “I want the government to build hand boreholes for us so that we can go to school early.”

    Hashima’s concerns were re-echoed by Iliya Gowok, the chairman of the Parent Teachers Association in the community, who spoke for the village head.  “We need water, and sanitation facilities,” Gowok said. “We get water from our well and when they dry up we trek very far to the river to fetch water,” he continued.

    He explained that they have to go into the bush for defecation because they lack latrines. Asked if flies from the faeces don’t affect the water they drink, he said: “We are thinking of covering the water we drink. Our calabash too needs to be covered.”

    Asked if there are not water boards for the people to access safe water from, an official of the Water and Sanitation Unit (WASU), replied in the negative.

    “The water board does not supply water for two or sometimes in three months,” the WASU official who pleaded anonymity, told this reporter during a working visit to the state. “They base their excuse on money. Sometimes they will say they don’t have enough money to buy diesel. So our people are suffering here,” he stated.

    He explained that politicians in the state are busy deceiving electorates to vote for them again ahead of the general elections when they have failed to live up to the votes they got in 2011.

    According to him, issues of sanitation and hygiene have basically been abandoned by politicians in their campaigns. He criticised the state government and local council for failing to live up to their responsibilities.

    “Our government has made access to water and sanitation a luxury. It takes international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) like WaterAid to provide water for some communities in the state,” he concluded.

    On what can be done to provide safe water for both communities, The State Program Consultant, WaterAid,  Chukwuma Nnanna explained that both communities have been ‘triggered’ by the agency for immediate response.

    “We are working with partners in the state to make sure that people have access to safe water and sanitation. What you have seen today makes a strong case for not just increased investment but a strong advocacy to ensure that more of our people have access to water.

    “We are supporting partners to provide facilities to communities in the state. And the two communities we visited today have already been triggered. In the sense that we have come here through our partners to encourage them to stop open defecation, and to ask them to build latrines for them to use. Most importantly, the visit is to encourage the government, stakeholders, civil society organisations and everybody to come together and address the sanitation crisis.

    “Many of our people don’t have access to sanitation. Many of our people still struggle to have access to safe drinking water. And this is a big concern to us in WaterAid Nigeria and every Nigerian. We are inspired to increase our partnership and advocacy,” he added.

  • More districts, communities to get water

    The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Water Board has expressed its readiness to enhance service provision through increased and uninterrupted water supply to districts and communities of the FCT yet to access water supply.

    Rising from the its meeting of the year which was also the 10th since the inauguration of the members of the Board, Chairman of the Board, Alhaji Alhassan Sule Gwagwa, expatiated that aside from conforming to President Goodluck Jonathan’s transformation agenda, the service expansion will also translate to improved revenue generation.

    Towards achieving this objective therefore, Gwagwa confirmed that the Board of Directors has concluded arrangements to make a presentation to the Minister of the FCT, Senator Bala Mohammed on the need for a speedy completion of tanks one and six and the associated mains in order to ensure that the adequate volume of water currently being produced is also equitably distributed.

    Contributing, Board member in charge of personnel matters, Alhaji Nasir Galadima, told reporters that issues of staff welfare, including incentives and allowances, provision of protective gears and uniforms and the need for good office accommodation, especially in area offices, were also resolved.

    The current security situation in the country, according to Alhaji Galadima, also informed the decision of the Board of Directors to ensure that the perimeter of Lower Usuma Dam is intact and secure at all times, while all other complementary measures that will protect the entire facility against any form of hostility are also put in place.

  • Water, water nowhere in Benin…!

    I write to draw the attention of the Edo State government to the sorry state of potable drinking water in Benin City.

    I recall that as a young lad, we used to have public water taps where we went to get water.  The water from these taps were not only good for all domestic purposes, we could also drink from them as well. You could find these water taps on almost every street in Benin, and as a matter of fact, they were more in areas where the poor man, who couldn’t afford to rent a three-bedroom flat, lived.

    But today, sir, all the water taps have disappeared. What has gone wrong, and if indeed something has gone wrong, why is it taking the government this long to provide a very basic human need like water?

    I recall that there was once a reservoir of water built during the military government of Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia. It was from here that the whole of Benin City got water. Therefore, I do not understand why the government in Edo State cannot build another one, just so as to give the poor people of Edo State access to clean, safe and potable water. Do you know how much an average family, school or hospital spend on buying sachet and bottle water?

    Trust me, sir, the current method of relying on sachet water which source and quality is suspect only helps to endanger the health of the good people of Edo State and Nigeria in general. May I also use this medium to decry the present habit of sinking boreholes in nearly every home in Benin City, especially in the GRA. Sinking of boreholes in residential areas like the GRA is a threat to the environment because there are cities around the world today which have experienced earthquakes because of the indiscriminate sinking of boreholes.

    I make bold to say that it is the failure of government, across board, from the local, state and federal levels, that has forced Nigerians from all walks of life to resort to water from boreholes and sachets. This has to stop. These governments must sit up.

     

    •By Bob MajiriOghene Etemiku,

    Africa Network for Environment & Economic Justice, (ANEEJ),

    Benin City.

  • Workers accuse Lagos of planning to sell water firm

    Workers accuse Lagos of planning to sell water firm

    DESPITE management’s refuttal of plans to privatise Lagos Water Corporation (LWC), the workers yesterday protested at the governor’s office in Alausa, Ikeja, urging him to stop the proposed sale.

    In branded blue polo shirts and face caps, the protesters under the aegis of Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE) disrupted traffic on Obafemi Awolowo Way as they marched to Governor Babatunde Fashola’s office.

    Carrying placards, with inscriptions such as, “We say no to privatisation, water is our right”, “Water is for the people, not business”, “We say no to sale of our common assets” and “Holloway, who do you represent?”, they said government was hiding under the guise of Public Private Partnership (PPP) to privatise the corporation.

    Last week, LWC Managing Director Mr Shayo Holloway, said that there was no plan to sell the corporation, stressing that LWC is only partnering with some firms under the PPP Law of 2004 to execute its master plan to increase potable water production.

    Holloway said the master plan would discourage the sinking of boreholes, adding that the multi-billion dollars project would provide surplus potable water to people at a cheap rate.

    But, the protesters said the PPP agreement would lead to LWC’s privatisation and workers’ retrenchment.

    Chanting solidarity songs, they said private firms have no business providing a service the government can handle. But the protesters could not see the governor who was said not to be in the office. They dropped their protest letter at his security post.

    Lagos AUPCTRE chairman Comrade Subair Muali said the workers would resist plans to sell off the corporation’s facilities to private firms.

    Subair, who noted the protest was not politically motivated, said the union had been engaging the government over the matter for the past five years. He accused Holloway of initiating the planned privatisation, saying the government wanted to hide under the PPP guise to sell off the 105-year-old asset.

    He said: “They can use any name to sell off public assets to private owners, we know it is privatisation. Holloway has been telling us that they are into Public Private Partnership, but we know his motive. How can you expect an individual to invest his money in producing potable water for the people without him wanting to take over the corporation asset?

    “Their aim is to retrench workers after they sell the water corporation asset to private investors. We do not trust their argument that they are not selling the corporation. We want the Lagos State government to know that water is not for sale; it must remain a social commodity to be provided by government to the people. We will not stop the protest until Holloway desists from his move to sell our common asset to his cronies.”

    The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) chairman in Lagos, Comrade Idowu Adelakun, said the workers would not stop until Holloway stops his “anti-people” policies at LWC.

    He said: “Lagos citizens and workers are rejecting privatisation of water in Lagos State. We have seen results of where privatisation has taken place; none has ended with good stories. This is why we want Governor Fashola to stop the secret sale of our assets to private individuals, because we don’t want the calamity that befell other government assets to fall on Lagos Water Corporation.”

  • No plan to sell water corporation, says MD

    No plan to sell water corporation, says MD

    There is no plan to sell Corporation (LSWC), its Managing Director, Mr Shayo Holloway, has said.

    Rather, the government is considering the public private partnership to meet the state’s water need.

    Holloway said: “There is no iota of truth in the speculation that the Lagos State government is planning to sell its water corporation. Rather, the government is seeking a partnership with private sector under the Public Private Partnership Law of 2004 to accelerate development of water infrastructure to meet the demand, which stands at 540 million gallons per day (MGD).”

    Holloway, who said the corporation provides water to nine million people daily, said the government had foreseen a situation where water demand would increase to 733 MGD by 2020 because of the increasing population in the state. He stressed that the population projection necessitated the need to boost the corporation’s capacity to provide potable water to the population.

    Holloway said the corporation has unveiled a $3.5 billion master plan that would increase potable water production to 745MGD, adding that its implementation would be witnessed by other government agencies to protect public interest.

    “To address the current water demand and meet the projection of the near future, LSWC developed a master plan to take the state from its current 210MGD to 745MGD by year 2020, through development of additional large water scheme taking raw water from rivers and lagoons for treatment into potable water,” he said.

    The state, Holloway said, could not solely fund the project, which will cover the major water works,  adding, that the government has started implementing part of the master plan in Adiyan Phase II, which would add 70MGD to the supply capacity.

    He identified boreholes as threat to efforts to provide potable water for the citizenry, saying Lagos is at risk of salt water from the Atlantic Ocean migrating to pollute the ground water because of boreholes in coastal region of the state.

    If completely implemented, Holloway said, the master plan would discourage the sinking of boreholes by residents. The multi-billion dollars project, he said, would provide surplus potable water to Lagos homes cheap and discourage the sinking of boreholes.

  • Fed Govt clarifies position on Okpella water project

    The Federal Government, at the weekend, said the Okpella water scheme in Edo State is an ongoing project.

    Edostate government last week accused the Federal Ministry of Water Resources of siphoning the N800 million meant for the project.

    The ministr’s Permanent Secretary, Mr. Istifanus Musa, in a statement in Abuja, said the water scheme had not been complted because of insufficient funds.

    He explained that the water scheme was listed among projects documented by the ministry at the inception of the Goodluck Jonathan administration for completion.

    The project was initially awarded by the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) in 1998 and later transferred to the ministry after the winding down of the PTF in 2000.

    He said: “The contract was initially awarded for N321,190,848.41,advance payment made by PTF was N157,860,865.74, certified works by PTF (supply of pipes and fittings) was N262,458,447.76 and the liabilities inherited by the Ministry was N104,597,582.04 . The Ministry has so far paid N60,000,000 .00.

    “The ministry under took  nationwide assessment of several abandoned project in the water sector, includng the Okpella Water Supply Project, which was estimated to cost N800,000,000 and documented them properly for completion by the Federal Government.

    “The project was later reviewed by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) to N789,934,486.00 in the 2011 to ensure its completion. However, due to funding constraints, the project was only provided for in the appropriation for 2012-2014 with the total releases of and payment of N60,000,000 only in 2012 and 2014.”

  • Rusted NNPC pipes contaminate community’s water

    Rusted Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) pipes have contaminated water in Baruwa-Ipaja, Secretary of the Community Development Committee of Ayobo Ipaja Local Council Development Area (LCDA) Chief Bayo Shittu has said.

    Speaking at the Ayobo Ipaja LCDA Stakeholders’ Forum at the council secretariat last weekend, Shittu said the contaminated water is not good for the people’s health.

    “NNPC has destroyed our water since 1998 and this polluted water has affected the well being of our children,” he said.

    The community, he said, has reported to NNPC but up till now nothing has been done.

    “We drew the attention of NNPC and when they came, the statement they made was to construct three tanks but up till now, no single drop of water comes out of the tanks they dug,” he said.

    Shittu appealed to the government to provide potable water for the community.

    The council Executive Secretary, Dele Ayinde represented by Femi Owolabi, assured the residents that something would be done.

    “We will look in the complaints and challenges; be rest assured that we will include all your demands into this year’s budget to meet your aspirations,” he said.

    The stakeholders’ meeting, he said, is a feedback mechanism between the people and the government.  He said his administration would focus on projects that will transform the council.

  • Kano spends N20.2b on water

    The Kano State Government has spent N20.2 billion on the provision of potable water in the last three and a half years, Governor Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso said yesterday.

    The governor spoke at the inauguration of the State Water Board’s modern office complex at Mubi Quarters in Kano.

    He explained that N11 billion was used to provide 1,000 ductile milimetre iron pipes for the major reticulation.

    Kwankwaso said N300 million was spent on the generator for pumping water, adding that N200 million was spent on repairing water pumping/generating machines.

    The governor assured that by the time the pipe laying was completed, water would flow adequately from Challawa and Tamburawa water treatment plants to the city.

    He said other regional water schemes would be upgraded to supply water to several parts of the city.

    Kwankwaso urged residents to inform the water board on any pipe leakage to enable its workers to fix it.

    The governor said the people should not allow public and private water pipes to leak recklessly.

    He said over N200 million was spent on the building, adding that the complex was named after Alhaji Abdul Azeez Umar (Sardaunan Hadejia), who was a Managing Director of the board, for his contributions to water management.

  • Cleansing your water tank

    Cleansing your water tank

    Water tank cleaning is a major household chore. You can do it yourself (DIY) or call in professionals to do it for you. If you do it yourself, make sure nobody falls off the roof or something like that.  DIY can be fun and can help to bond members of the household. If you want to clean your water tank and have some funds for it, heck out your supermarket and hard ware stores for useful products and tips. If you DIY -first, remove the float switch and any electrical device or component to avoid electric shock accidents. Then shut off the connecting pipes so that water from the cleaning does not run into the pipes supplying the house. The entire process involves emptying the tank, cleaning the tank, disinfecting the tank with chlorine, and removing chlorine residue.

    If you use professionals they may use the manual method by which the laborer climbs into the tank and scrubs the walls and floor from inside. Other professionals may use the automated water tank cleaning method involving the use of water jet cleaners, anti-bacterial agents and disinfectants.

    The World Health Organization gives some simple guidelines that you can follow if you DIY. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/hygiene/envsan/tn03/en/. “The tank must be cleaned to ensure that water stored in the tank does not become contaminated by dirt or traces of the substance the tank previously held. This can be achieved by following the three steps below.”

    Clean The Tank

    52 family health 073-02-2015.Drain/empty the tank.  “Open the outlet valve/tap and drain out any remaining liquid…Permanent storage tanks are usually fitted with a washout valve that draws water from the base. Use this for emptying rather than the normal outlet valve. The process of emptying the remaining liquids from portable tanks will depend on the shape and design of the tank. Some can be tipped on their side and others dismantled.”

    Clean/scrub all internal surfaces. “Use a mixture of detergent and water (household laundry soap powder will do) to clean all internal surfaces of the tank. This can be done with a stiff brush or a high pressure jet. If the tank has contained volatile substances such as oil or organic liquids…try not to enter the tank as the gases given off by the liquids could be dangerous… Attaching the brush to a long pole may make it possible to clean the tank without entering it. Take special care to clean corners and joints so that no small amounts of the original liquid remain. Even minute amounts of some liquids can give the water a bad taste…Leave the outlet valve open whilst cleaning and collect the waste liquid for safe disposal.”

    Wash all internal surfaces to remove all traces of detergent. “This is most easily done with a high pressure hose pipe or water jet but if they are not available the tank can be filled with water and left to stand for a few hours. Drain all the water from the tank”Dispose the water safely. ”Continue flushing the tank until there are no longer traces of detergent in the water.

    Chlorinate The Tank To Disinfect It

    Prepare chlorine solution to disinfect the tank. “The best source of chlorine to use is High Test Hypochlorite (HTH) granules or powder as this normally contains 50 to 70% chlorine.”Fill a 20 litre bucket with clean water and add 50g of HTH with stirring to dissolve it.Add 10 litres (half a bucket) of the chlorine solution to the water in the tank for every cubic meter of tank volume (1 cubic meter = 1000 liters). Fill the tank up to full capacity for the chlorine to reach all areas inside the tank.Place the lid and let the chlorine stand in the tank for 24 hours to disinfect it. If you do not have up to 24h to wait, double the chlorine concentration and wait only 8 hours. After disinfecting, empty the tank and dispose of the chlorinated water safely. You may decide to run it through the pipes to clean them too.

    Remove Chlorine Residue

    Fill the tank with fresh water and leave to stand for 30 minutes. 52 family health 073-02-2015.If you are ableto obtaina chlorine tester from the stores use itto testthe levelof chlorine in thewater. “If the residual chlorine concentration is 0.5mg/l or less the tank is safe to use for water storage. If the concentration is greater than 0.5mg/l, empty the tank again and refill with clean water. Re-test to check that the chlorine concentration is 0.5mg/l or less”  If you cannot obtain a tester, simply fill the tank, let it stand for 30 minutes and then empty it before refilling it for use. Remove chlorine from pipes also.

    Cleaning is recommended every 2-3 years or when your tank shows signs such as water discoloration, foul odor, strange taste in the water, or sedimentation. Lack of cleaning can lead to disease or damage to the pump and home fixtures by the built-up sediment.  If you use professional cleaners, theymay help to determine the cause of any unusual level of contamination and may have tools that vacuum sediment from the tank.  If you want the whole house to have purified water they may also install a water filtration system.

    Dr. ‘Bola John is a biomedical scientist based in Nigeria and in the USA.   For any comments or questions on this column, please email bolajohnwritings@yahoo.com or call 08160944635