AS the world celebrates the importance of hand washing with soap and water, the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) residing at Gongola camp in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria, have no potable water, as well as toilets.
According to NAN, this was revealed when a team of the National Task Group on Sanitation and non-governmental organisations like WaterAid and Action Against Hunger, visited the camp on Monday to mark the 2018 hand washing day.
Joseph Jauro, the camp chairman, said there was no accessible water in the camp.
He recounted numerous cases of diarrhoea and cholera cases and deaths among under-five-year-old children, saying this has been linked to poor sources of drinking water.
While narrating the difficulty in getting water in the camp, Jauro said the free source of water is a stream where many women have been bitten by snakes while sourcing for it.
He added some water vendors which are called “mai ruwa” sell water to displaced persons at N20 per a 20-litre of cans.
“There are times when you do not have the money to buy the water, you end up going to the stream to fetch the water the way it is,” the camp chairman said.
He called for immediate interventions from relevant stakeholders, saying this was necessary to forestall terrible incidents.
“We want the government to help us, to alleviate our sufferings in this camp, how can we call ourselves Nigerians when we do not have the basic necessities of life’’, Jauro said.
The WaterAid, in a statement on its website, says 59 million Nigerians have no access to clean water, representing one in every three persons.

Nigeria has be identified to be faced with a continuous decline in access to healthy water supply.
He added that 180,799,475 persons representing 93% of the total Nigeria population lack access to healthy water.
In spite of the accomplishments and the enormous opportunities in the water sector in terms of abundant fresh water, favourable weather, substantial human capita and numerous institutional arrangements, a lot of work still need to be done as the current national access to water supply implies that millions of Nigerians are still without access to improved drinking water resources.
He said “In spite of the enormous opportunities we have in the water sector in terms of abundant fresh water, favourable weather numerous institutional arrangements, we still have a lot of work to do.
With the current national access to water supply as at today, it implies that millions of Nigerians are still without access to improved drinking water sources”.
He informed the completion of the National water resources master plan which attaches high priority to the implementation of a series of large, medium and small dam projects in Nigeria.
“Let me inform that the National water resources master plan which gives high priority to the implementation of a series of large, medium and small dam projects in Nigeria has been finalized and we currently have over 200 dams in Nigeria.
According to him, fresh water resources are continuously under pressure of global population growth, climate change and spread of lifestyles that squander resources adding that 80% of wastewater returns to the ecosystem without being treated.
He stressed the Continous commitment to support the Nigerian governments in the transition to green and circular economies and their efforts to implement better-integrated water policies.
Tags: water

This was revealed by the Chief of Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), UNICEF Nigeria, Zaid Jurji, in collaboration with‎ the recent Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics in 2016/17, which also indicated that about 40 per cent of households do not have access to clean water sources.
‎He said: "For Nigeria to achieve the global goal of providing access to safe water for every citizen by 2030, it needs to make water, together with sanitation and hygiene, a national priority.
This goal is closely linked with three key results for the country-good health, environment sustainability and economic prosperity.
‎"Access to safe drinking water remains a challenge to majority of Nigerians, especially those living in the rural areas.
"In the rural areas, 19 million people walk long distances to collect unsafe water from lakes, streams and rivers.
"Children without access to safe water are more likely to die in infancy and throughout childhood from water-borne diseases.
Diarrhea remains the leading cause of death among children under five years of age in Nigeria.
"Waterborne diseases also contribute to stunting.
A stunted child is shorter than he or she could have been, and will never be able to reach his or her full cognitive potential.
UNICEF, in collaboration with the federal, state and local governments, has provided safe water during the past five years to over eight million Nigerians living in rural areas.

The Federal Government in collaboration with The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), have stressed the importance of water and sanitation in safeguarding the health of the children.
In his presentation, the UNICEF Chief of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Abuja, Zaid Jurji, said investment in water and sanitation is necessary in order for Nigeria to meet the sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030.
At the community level, there is a need for them to work at sustainability,” he said.
According to him, only less than 10 per cent of water in Nigeria is suitable for drinking.
Open defecation can also make water unsuitable for drinking despite how much effort we put in to make it suitable”.
Jurji mentioned that 25 per cent of the population in Nigeria practise open defecation, according to the MICS report.
According to him, “It is a fact that UNICEF and EU has been in the forefront of ensuring that we have access to safe drinking water supply, adequate sanitation and proper hygiene in our environment and communities.” Speaking further, Osanyinpeju said WASH remained very important in the life of a Child and significant to achieving Sustaining Development Goal 6.
Open defecation is incredibly dangerous, as contact with human waste can cause diseases such as cholera, typhoid, hepatitis, polio, diarrhoea, worm infestation and undernutrition.” Osanyinpeju said there was a need to improve on water and sanitation in order to end Open Defecation by 2030.
According to him; “Washing hands with soap after going to the toilet or before eating can have a significant impact on children’s health.
Good hygiene practices reduce the incidence of diseases such as pneumonia, trachoma, scabies, skin and eye infections and diarrhoea-related diseases like cholera and dysentery.” “Research has also shown that regular hand washing with soap can reduce the incidents of diarrhoea, a disease which can be deadly to children.” In the same vein, The Plateau state Commissioner for Water Resources and Energy, Engineer David Wuyep who declared the Media Dialogue open, commended UNICEF for its intervention in the provision of water in the state and assured that the state government will always ensure prompt payment of counterpart funds.

L-R: Engr Oladimeji Botimi, Director Watr Supply Ondo state, RUWASSA; Dr. Musa Ibrahim; Permanent Secretary FMWR; Engr.
Suleiman Adamu, Minister of Water Resources; Mrs. Elisie Ofili, Deputy Director Standard organisation of Nigeria and Mr. Emmanuel Awe, Director water supply, FMWR at the unveil of Nigeria Standard for Drinking Water Quality, in Abuja.
Speaking on Thursday during the unveiling of the NSDWQ in Abuja, Engr.
Suleiman Adamu, Minister of Water Resources, noted that the ministry had been assigned the responsibility of enforcement, saying, not much had been done in respect to enforcement of standard with water producer carrying on with business without regard for the quality of drinking water supplied to the people.
He said that the water quality laboratory had the responsibility for water quality surveillance and enforcement of the standards.
Quoting the World Health Organisation (WHO), he said, “diseases related to drinking water contamination represent a major burden on human health and interventions to improve the quality of drinking water provide significant benefits to the health and wellbeing of the people.” Dr. Musa Ibrahim, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources said much progress had been made in providing water supply facilities in Nigeria.
He explained that “according to data from 2016 multiple indicator cluster survey 5 (MICS 5), access to improved drinking water supply sources is estimated at 64.1% in the country.
Giving the scale of the challenge, this is highly remarkable achievement.” He noted that the quality of water could be highly compromised during collection, trough transport to point of use, so that for the same period the percentage access to safe drinking water is 32.1%, adding that the NSDWQ NIS-554-2015 will improve quality of water consumption.
He said, “FMWR have been given the responsibility to enforce the standard any state agency that goes away with what we have in the standard will be penalized, we have a fine that water board will pay if the water is not according to standard.
“For the private suppliers of water we have a standard that they must collect sample of their water for test in any water laboratories of their choice every year to carry out analysis to be sure that what they are drinking is safe, adding that enforcement of standard on private water supply and owners borehole will be carried out by the water laboratories.”