Apparently, authorities in Nigeria have come to regard the issue of water supply with the same attitude as a failed life race between the lion and the antelope.
Every day, the lion wakes up realising it must be able to outrun the fastest antelope lest it will starve to death.
Every day, the antelope wakes up realising that it has to outrun the fastest lion, lest it will end up in the lion’s stomach.
Whichever side you look at; it is Run-Run-Run! Sometimes, you could be heading in the wrong direction as happens in Nigeria on the issue of water supply, where the authorities realise the importance and precarious situation of water supply; but they do nothing, even in the face of cholera epidemic and other water-borne diseases.
We shall attempt here to restate the importance of water, and to give it the priority it deserves instead of our current fire brigade approach.
We have observed elsewhere that we live in a wonderful world, a world so wonderfully made that all the essentials of life are freely given to us in abundance.
These things are so free that all that is required of us is to do just a little value addition to adapt them to our very use wherever we live.
Look at the air we breathe. It is available everywhere; and if it were to be withheld for just one minute, the entire humanity would go into extinction.
Water is life. Water is readily available everywhere. For one thing, 75 percent of the earth’s surface is made up of water.
For another, the entire hard surface of the earth which we call dry land hangs perilously over water. Put differently, the earth is merely a decking over water.
Water, water, water everywhere but we are dying of thirst. What is happening?
Women are the worse for it all.
They must trek long distances with calabashes on their heads in search of water for house chores.
There are many remote areas particularly in Northern Nigeria where even surface pond water is still a luxury today.
This problem of water supply to the people has been a serious concern to leaders, we remember the late Patrick Eguaseki-Ogida (NPN/Oredo).
He was in my office on that fateful day with a motion calling on the Federal Government to make clean drinking water available in all Federal Constituencies throughout the country.
Hon. Sule Lamido (PRP/Kano) as he then was came in and wanted to be co-sponsor of the motion provided, however, that the word “clean” was deleted from the water supply.
To Lamido, water is water and no one should introduce the luxury of cleanliness into the motion. Each person argued strongly in support of his position.
I later intervened to explain the true position to them, viz the issue of pipe-borne water to the people is not for the Federal Government but for the sub-nationals.
Any item that is neither on the Exclusive Legislative nor Concurrent Legislative list is on the Residual list which belongs to the sub-nationals.
The Federal Government is in-charge of Water for Agriculture and Irrigation purposes.
With our burgeoning populations, the issue of water supply to the people has become so capital-intensive that the sub-nationals are no longer able to cope with it.
As it were, the important issue of water supply to the people has been rendered constructively fatherless. That’s one way of explaining the death of the Water Boards from State to State, including the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.
In every problem situation, the Nigerian must develop a Defence Mechanism to cope. In Nigeria today, particularly in the urban areas, every house has at least one water borehole. This is a direct way of resorting to self-help since Government has abdicated its responsibility in the regard.
Remember the earth is sitting perilously on a decking set on top of water. With every borehole we sink, we are interfering with the original setting of the decking.
There is a degree of interference that the earth can bear. In the fullness of time, gbam! Everything and everyone will go under! That is the making of an earthquake!
The time to begin to plan to avoid that major catastrophe is NOW.
In the much talked-about restructuring, the issue of water supply to the people must be given its due pride of place. This issue is too important to be left in the hands of those who can least afford it.
While this permanent solution is being sort, the Federal Government must put its money where its mouth is. It must set aside, enough budgetary outlays as Grants-In-Aid of Sub-nationals for the purpose of providing life through the provision of clean water to the citizenry.
Happily, there is now a conscious effort to lift this important issue to the highest political level. That’s exactly what Mr. Peter Obi, the Labour Party Presidential Candidate at the 2023 Elections tried to do when he said he had embarked on the provision of 5,000 Boreholes annually in the North and called on others to join in this noble effort.
This is good but we must quickly return to the old system of Consolidated Water Works instead of destabilizing the earth’s natural setting.
The Way We Were: In City after City, they had Water Boards and Water Works that worked. In our Student days, once we discovered the Water Works at Enu-Onitsha, every free Saturday we were there.
We had a guided tour of the Facilities and at the end of the day, they allowed us to take away as much alum as we wanted, which we took home during holidays for washing the big snails of those days and purifying our drinking pond water.
On every Street in Onitsha, there was a public tap which never went dry except on the few occasions when Chief Michael Imodu was on top of his elements and Nigerian Workers were called out on strike.
In the Credo of Civilization, Benin City, the public taps on every street corner at the time were perhaps as old as the City.
During our annual Pilgrimage of Sorts, we accompanied our parents to Agbado Market to sell their yams.
The public taps never went dry.
When we were returning to the village, we took some city water along and in just the same way as modern pilgrims bring home water from the River Jordan, we shared our city water to friends’ back home.
In the past, the Water Works worked. The Water Boards functioned well. The people saw their Government and felt its presence. But today, all these are no more.
We are not quite sure of where the bottom fell off in all this.
The galvanized pipes used in distributing water to all the nooks and crannies of our ancient cities across Nigeria are still underground; destroying the soil; and Constituting land mines of sorts.
We must quickly free our soils of further environmental degradation by removing those dangers. The scrap collectors may find them useful now.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Omorotionmwan a public affairs analyst lives in Canada
