70mn Nigerians lack access to safe water: UNICEF

By Rafiu Ajakaye

LAGOS

Some 70 million Nigerians lack access to safe water while 110 million suffer from poor sanitation, the UN children fund (UNICEF) said on Friday.

"With some 70 million people without access to safe water and over 110 million people without access to improved sanitation, Nigeria is currently not on track with regard to its attainment of water and sanitation targets," UNICEF spokesman Geoffrey Njoku said in a statement ahead of the World Water Day on March 22.

The UN body said the lack of access to safe water and sanitation impedes development and exposes people especially children to greater risks of diseases.

"The poor bear the greatest brunt of this lack of access to water and sanitation," the statement said.

"For women and girls, collecting water cuts into time they can spend caring for families and studying. In insecure areas, it also puts them at risk of violence and attack."

UNICEF estimates that in Africa alone, people spend 40 billion hours every year just walking to collect water.

"For children, lack of access to safe water can be tragic. On average, nearly 1,000 of them die globally every day from diarrheal diseases linked to unsafe drinking water, poor sanitation, or poor hygiene."

The UN body called for intensifying efforts for improving access to water and good sanitation and encouraging more government investments in these areas.

"UNICEF has been working with the Federal Ministry of Water Resources as well as the state governments to promote use of sustainable approaches and technologies for water abstraction and use," the statement said.

"In the last two years, nearly 2.5 million people gained access to safe water in rural areas through UNICEF support."

This year's theme on World Water Day is "Water and Sustainable Development."

UNICEF said the theme captures the "overarching role of water in our lives, be it for human consumption, food production, for health, for power generation, for industry and for the sustenance of nature as a whole, without which life would not exist."

"This year's theme highlights the importance of water to our existence and emphasizes the need to look at the holistic development of the water sector, reduce water wastage and prevent contamination of this increasingly scarce resource," UNICEF Water and Sanitation Chief Kannan Nadar said in the statement.

"Everyone, be it the government, the civil society, international development partners and the citizens including children have a critical role to play in ensuring that water is sustainably used and is available for generations to come."