Oando PLC and its joint venture (JV) partners – Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC), have provided good drinking water to the over 5,000 residents of Agbere community in Bayelsa State, following the inauguration of a 20,000 -gallon water project in the community.
According to a statement by Oando Plc, “the initiative is grounded in the fact that water is a fundamental human need.
Each person requires at least 20 to 50 litres of clean, safe water, daily, for drinking, cooking, and simply keeping themselves clean.
Sadly, today in Nigeria there is an alarming dearth of access toclean water, and at Oando, we want to bridge this gap especially in our host communities.” According to the statement, the laudable water scheme will drastically reduce deadly water-borne diseases in the community such as typhoid fever, cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, and hepatitis ‘A’.
“The scheme will also reduce the amount of time spent looking for water especially in rural areas, as noted by UNICEF – 19 million Nigerians walk long distances to collect unsafe water from lakes, streams and rivers,” the statement added.
The commitment of Oando and its partners was in line with the request of UNICEF Communications Specialist, Eva Hinds, who said:“Improving water and sanitation services as well as basic hygiene practices in Nigeria, calls for strong commitment from all partners-the government, civil society, the private sector and communities.” 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, environmental sustainability and economic prosperity.” In order to ensure the water scheme is maintained thereby ensuring it has a long life span and is able to support future generations in the community, the water plant came fully kitted with a 30KVA diesel power generating set with an external diesel storage tank and power connections as well as a shelter for the generator and treatment plant, a cased borehole of about 200m depth and a 10HP submersible pump, 3,000m reticulation / distribution water pipes with 30 fetching taps.
Speaking during the inauguration of the project, the paramount ruler of the community, Chief John Maseri thanked the JV Partners for completing and inaugurating the project.
He noted that water was the most essential necessity of life and therefore, with the commissioning of the water project, NAOC JV has made life more meaningful for the people of the Community.
The Paramount Ruler promised that the Community will continue to ensure that a conducive working environment is provided for the company’s operations and Community’s development.

Stating this during a two day media dialogue on Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in Anambra State earlier in the week, a Research Specialist, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Mainga Moono Banda said so far, about 130 million Nigerians use unimproved sanitation facilities, adding that more than half of that figure live in rural areas.
They said with the steady decline, Nigeria may not meet the 2030 target of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) on water sanitation and hygiene, except something drastic is put in place.
“Of the 180 million Nigerians in the country, about 75.8 per cent of the citizens who live in rural areas practice open defecation, making the country the third highest nation with open defecation globally.
“Target six in the SDG is specific on WASH.
Also, by 2030, nations should achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene, and end open defecation,” Banda said, noting that special attention should be placed on women, girls, and those in vulnerable situations.
“Poor WASH can cause myriads of problems, including death.
A mother who just delivered can infect her baby by mere carrying the baby if her hands are not properly washed.
With proper hygiene, the woman can help prevent the baby from sepsis or deaths by about 15 per cent.
“Poor WASH can affect school attendance because a child who is infected with bouts of diarrhea can end up becoming undernourished, and on the long run may lead to stunting, poor attendance in school.
Meanwhile, the Programme Manager, Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency, Ministry of Public Utilities and Water Resources, Anambra State, Ezekwo Victor said the state government was committed to WASH, adding that Governor Willie Obiano has rehabilitated 116 non functional boreholes across the state.

Recently, the Federal Government declared a state of emergency to invigorate the deteriorating situation of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in Nigeria.
KINGSLEY JEREMIAH and JOKE FALAJU write that a National Action Plan on the situation which was developed by the Ministry of Water Resources to make Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) achievable in Nigeria by 2030 would be elusive if Federal, State and Local Governments fail to double investment and work with the private sector to address inherent challenges.
As important as water, sanitation and hygiene are to livelihood, a report by the United Nations and another from WaterAid Nigeria recently revealed that over 60 million Nigerians lack access to potable water, 120 million do not have decent toilets facilities and 47 million engage in open defecation.
To underscore the situation, UN reports indicated that over $8 billion would be required yearly till 2030 otherwise; Nigeria would not address the challenge of water.
Obiakor said policy needs to be approved by the Senate and assented to by the President, adding, “if government want that action plan to be effective, it has to approve the National Water Resource bill” With a clear definition of roles among Federal, State, and Local governments, improvement of technical capacity, proper funding, institutionalisation of sanitation, improvement of spending efficiency, management of scare resources, improvement of functioning and creditworthiness of networked services, proper regulation of informal sector in water supply and sanitation, improvement of rural water supply provision, detailed communications strategy as well as mainstream data collection, experts said the country may be heading towards mitigating the challenges in the sector.
In order to ensure that efforts translate into effective service delivery, the experts stressed that service delivery pathway must be established and strengthened at all stages, particularly, from policy, planning and financing, through infrastructure improvements and expansion, to effective management principles.As outlined in the action plan, by 2019 Nigerians are expected to see effective communication of political-will for WASH, a sector reform in all states through the adoption of state-level action plans, development and adoption of policies and laws to produce an enabling environment for the development of efficient, sustainable, and equitable service delivery as well as mobilization of civil society organizations and develop an effective communications policy to obtain community buy-in, while a high-powered steering committee are expected to harmonise tools, systems and approaches for monitoring and evaluation within the sector between all 36 states.
The Federal Government through the 13 years’ plan had said it would support states in the development of their monitoring and evaluation capacity through the organization of zonal capacity building workshops and hands-on support, while conducting regular sector performance reviews The Minister had said government would provide service providers operational and financial efficiency by dedicated technical assistance, expand existing WASH infrastructure, promote increased private sector participation in the sector, get states engaged in institutional development and design incentives for sustainable service delivery models as well as create accountability through a binding performance contract on both the agency and government to accelerated and implementation in a space of five-year.
As a matter of emergency government had pledged to fast track the development of the National Policy on Sanitation, identify and support states, through the National WASH Fund, to demonstrate citywide approaches to sanitation development, improve access to sanitation and hygiene services in public spaces, encourage states and local governments to enforce existing codes and related legislation regarding the minimum number of sanitation facilities required for buildings and facilities as well as a robust public awareness and education.
As laudable as government plans on WASH are, an Official of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Zaid Jurgi, sees funding as a basic challenge that may thwart the efforts, insisting that achieving goal six of the SDGs alone would cost Nigeria over $8 billion yearly for the next 13 years.
A large share of these needs to be supported by the public sector; 1.3 per cent of GDP, equivalent to $5.3 billion a year, which must be cost shared by the Federal Government, as well as by the State and Local Governments.

Government must make clean and safe water accessible to all Safe water is a basic commodity necessary for the survival of humanity.
It also estimates that 58 per cent of that burden, or 842,000 deaths per year, are attributable to a lack of safe drinking water supply, sanitation and hygiene.
This statistic is quite disturbing and can be connected to Nigeria, where lack of access to safe water is causative of waterborne diseases including Cholera, Dysentery, Typhoid Fever, Polio, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Hepatitis A, Scabies and Dengue Fever, among others.
It is also responsible for Diarrhoea, the main killer of children under the age of five years in Nigeria, and stunting, an abnormality that hampers a child from reaching their full learning potential.
UNICEF is distraught that access to safe water constitutes a challenge for majority of Nigerians, especially those in the rural communities.
It warned that for the country of 195 million people to attain 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.
To realise the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets by 2030, the N85 billion earmarked for the Federal Ministry of Water Resources in the 2017 budget should be fully implemented while governments at all levels should make clean and safe water accessible to all.
We are also calling for a policy guideline that will modulate the practice where virtually all Nigerian house owners dig wells and boreholes to meet water requirement.
This practice is carried out without considering the impact on the environment and the possibility of seismic shift in the earth crust that could result in earthquake.
Meanwhile, potable water and improved sanitation services are verifiable measures for fighting poverty and diseases.

Amidst the conflict in Pulka, north-east Nigeria, displaced people struggle to access basic amenities like safe water.
She has to cook, bathe and feed her family.
Nothing is possible if she cannot fill her jerry can today.
Hauwa, like others in the camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Pulka, Borno state, north-east Nigeria, is struggling to cope with an acute water shortage.
Crowds, mostly women, jostle to get their mugs under the mouths of the hand pumps.
Every inch gained in the melee counts; every drop in the bucket increases the chance of survival in the excruciating dry heat.
International standards for humanitarian aid recommend that people have access to between 15 and 20 litres of water every day in emergency conditions.
Community members have come together to dig wells.
“The struggle for water in the camps also increases tensions between the host community and the displaced populations.
In Pulka, 5,000 IDPs are living in makeshift tents in the transit camp.

A stereotypical photo depicting hunger in sub-Saharan Africa might show a gaunt victim.
When photographer Chris de Bode traveled to Cameroon–in an area where conflict, drought, and a swelling population of refugees have led to ongoing food shortages–he focused on the food instead.
On one plate, with rice, mango leaves, and maize, we see the half-eaten meal of a family that fled from a village on the border with Nigeria when armed men attacked.
They now live in a makeshift refugee camp, but there isn’t enough food; after begging, they’ve managed to gather one meal for the day for seven people.
Another photo shows a bowl of “super cereal,” a milky white porridge used as an emergency supplement.
The northern part of the country, already the poorest region before the conflict began, has been especially hard hit.
Boko Haram has kidnapped hundreds of people and forced them to work as farmers for the group; in some places, militants have issued death threats to farmers who don’t want to give up part of their harvest.
The group has also stolen at least $6 million worth of livestock.
The branches of the Red Cross working in the region provide cash to support some people in the area (giving them the option to spend it on food, when food is available, or on whatever else is needed, like repairing homes damaged in fighting), and work to bring in food when it runs out at markets–though the conflict and treacherous roads make that difficult.
“I felt by doing the same, which I’ve done a lot over the years, it wouldn’t add anything.

UNICEF has been in the country for more than 20 years and have been working in different areas.
That means, only two-thirds of the population have access to safe drinking water sources.
Having access to sources is one thing but then the quality of the water that is been used by people for drinking purposes at the household level is different, because the source is somewhere in nature.
There are so many things that can be done by the people in the community to ensure they have safe drinking water.
First of all, meeting WASH objectives, we need to make WASH a priority in the national agenda.
One part will cover capital investment to construct new water systems and sanitation systems in areas that have not been served before.
So that at the end, they can get the water they need at the household level suitable for drinking.
PT: How much has UNICEF spent so far as part of its support for the WASH project?
Jurji: Like I said, it’s over 20 years UNICEF has been working in Nigeria, so I do not have access to that figure.
These, people will have to make sure the source is free from any contamination.

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.
The recent Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), conducted by the Government of Nigeria in 2016/17, indicates that about 40 per cent of households and about 69 million people, do not have access to clean water sources.
“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.
Diarrhoea remains the leading cause of death among children under five years of age in Nigeria.
“Waterborne diseases also contribute to stunting.
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.

And the numbers do not stay idle.
From 2014 to 2017 due to an increasing concern regarding various health problems caused by consumption of contaminated water, the global bottled market grew from $170.6 billion to $238.5 billion following 8.74% yearly growth, states the report on the Bottled Water Market 2018 from The Business Research Company.
By value the market is going to reach $349 billion by 2021 following 10% yearly growth.
The volume’s growth will be a bit lower, but not by a significant number, at 9.3% yearly growth to reach 623 billion liters by 2021.
The consumption of the bottled water in 2017 was the highest in the Asia Pacific region accounting for 42% of the global bottled water consumption.
Following the health awareness trend, bottled water consumers in the Asia Pacific region are also increasingly adopting new products with health benefits, such as functional water, which added functional value in the form of minerals, oxygen and vitamins.
Data segmentations: country and regional historic and forecast data, market share of competitors, market segments.
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Hawa’u Dauda, a mother of five, is one of many women in Adamawa State, northeastern Nigeria, who had to trek for miles to fetch clean water every day for the family, despite having a borehole close to home.
“We saw earthworms in the water and stopped using the borehole,” says Hawa’u.
The stagnant water was becoming a breeding ground for mosquitoes.” “Now it is clean and has improved the health of my family and the community,” explains Hawa’u smiling.
With the help of IFRC, the Nigerian Red Cross is helping more than 40,000 people access clean drinking water through household water treatment, safe storage and the rehabilitating of water points in 63 communities in Adamawa state.
63 million without access to clean water in Nigeria Lack of safe drinking water is a common challenge in Nigeria, affecting many rural communities and city slums.
About 63 million out of 187 million Nigerians do not have access to clean water.
In the northeast alone, the persistent conflict has turned 3.9 million people in need of water.
According to an IFRC and Nigerian Red Cross needs assessment conducted in 2017, about 39 per cent of water infrastructure is non-functioning in Adamawa State.
“Bringing water closer to home means that women and children – who carry the brunt of collecting water – have more time for their school studies, household duties and quality time with their families,” says Zakari Issa, IFRC water, sanitation and hygiene coordinator for West and Central Africa.
“As Red Cross, we’re working to ensure greater access to water for all.” In 2017, the Nigerian Red Cross reached more than 24,000 people with hygiene promotion, water transport and storage containers and water treatment tablets in Adamawa State.