Residents of Rafin Kunu Village in Bosso Local Government Area of Niger State have called on the concerned authorities to provide them with clean water.
According to them, the only source of water in the village is unfit for consumption. They had to boil the water before using it.
A girl who spoke in a video clip obtained by WikkiTimes said, the unclean water “has been our only source of water supply. We will have to fetch from here, take it home, boil it before we could drink from it and also perform ablution.”
READ: Neglected Abuja Community Where Access To Water Is Seasonal
She, however, urged the government to intervene. “We need help from the government to provide us with a portable water supply,” she said.
An unnamed middle-aged woman who also spoke in the clip said whenever she fetches the water, she had to resort to local chemicals to purify it.
This is despite the completion of the water supply project in Niger state and the enactment of a law to establish a new State Water and Sewerage Corporation — an entity to replace the then Niger State Water Board.
However, aid agencies claimed that about 60 million Nigerians or 33 per cent of the population, lack access to clean water. But Joseph Ibrahim, water and environmental expert, refutes the report and asserts that the figure may have been underestimated.
READ: WaterAid Commissions N42m Projects In Bauchi
“I think that figure is a little bit conservative in the sense that, as Nigerians,” he stated. “We know that more of our population lives in the rural areas. I think the World Bank’s statistics tell us that about 51 per cent of our population reside in rural areas and it is common knowledge that the rural population doesn’t have access to clean water.”
Poor water supply, sanitation and hygiene have been identified as the cause of more than half of global diarrheal diseases, which remain the second leading cause of morbidity and mortality among children under the age of five.
