93 percent Nigerians get water from unverifiable sources

The Federal Government has expressed worry that 93 per cent of Nigerians get their water supply from boreholes, rivers and streams, which sources cannot guarantee freshness and cleanliness.

Minister of Water Resources, Engr. Suleiman Adamu, who said this at the 2018 World Water Day Symposium in Abuja, explained that only seven per cent of the country’s population gets its water supply through pipe networks as of 2017.

He said: “Statistics have shown over the years that with the rapid increase in population growth, access to clean drinking water and sanitation has steadily declined

“As population grows, the coverage rapidly declines at a rate of about one per cent a year, when compared with the urbanisation rate. A worrying challenge is the declining percentage of Nigerians getting water supply through pipe networks, from 31per cent in 1990 to less than seven per cent in 2017.”

To address the development, Adamu said the National Water Resources Master Plan, which gives high priority to the implementation of a series of large, medium and small dam projects across the country, has been finalised.

Also speaking, Dr. Chichi Okoye, the Country Director of Water Aid Nigeria, said over 60 million Nigerians lack access to clean water and an overwhelming 123 million lack basic sanitation.

Okoye said the denial of these basic human rights contributes to the deaths of about 165 children under five every single day, and holds women, girls and children back from fulfilling their potential.