Water as a fundamental human right

If you were born in my generation you would have been used to a certain high standard in the supply of potable drinking water. There was water everywhere. So good that we drank from taps on our way home from school. And taps ran in front of our houses.

Today, the benefits we once had and provided by the state are miles from the reach of the new-fangled generation and it doesn’t seem like any government can bring about changes that are badly needed by Nigerians.

I do not subscribe to the school of thought that situations would probably have to get worse before there can be a difference in improving the quality of living. It is not as if other parts of the world do not face similar issues, not even America, but, it’s the severity in our part of the world that makes it worrying. Someone berating a whiner in America told him to “move to Africa, beyond the brothers who live in misery, full of flies and see what life is like and do not complain so much that you have nothing here.”

Living in a third-world country shouldn’t make us appear like jerks to people in other countries. The provision of clean water to the citizenry is one way to belie the stereotype that we are not a serious people.
But we can’t be serious if we do not have functional water boards to protect public health. Because water supply has been left in the hands of private people only interested in the business of water, the safety of the water we consume isn’t guaranteed. Who ensures that fluoride is added to the drinking water supplied by water supply chains? Are the numerous bore holes we sink free from underground water pollution?

I have been here (Port Harcourt) for more than a decade, and even though I see a water authority, it is dysfunctional.

The government’s loss of income through regular billing for water and sewerage services as well as household consumption would be a joke if it wasn’t such a disgrace. And the state plunges her citizens into the risks of water-borne diseases by depriving millions of the chance to drink safe, clean drinking water.

In 2010, The United Nations recognised access to safe, clean drinking water as a human right. But no state government has been charged with the violation of such rights for shirking in the duty of providing the populace with water which is a basic necessity of life. I do not see the installation of water pipeline projects in new rising neighbourhoods anywhere, to suggest that the state and water boards have plans to construct pipelines, provide water services in the future and possibly train communities of people to maintain them.

Safe and clean drinking water for Nigerians is one of the most pressing issues of our time. The effects of this basic lack are precipitous. Well-meaning governments all have a role to play in building a brighter future.

With climate change, the quality of underground water used by people for drinking and other uses are becoming increasingly unsafe. Collecting rain water for non-drinking reasons such as watering of gardens, bathing, car washing is now preferable and safer. In Port Harcourt city for instance, the vegetation in neighbourhoods is bare. There are no trees, and without trees the soil quality degrades. The holding capacity of quality water is not guaranteed, and this threatens livelihoods.
“Trees change the weather, increase the amount of water, and bring rain”. The abundance of quality drinking water improves livelihoods and builds a sustainable future.

Environmental groups must begin to raise global awareness about the lack of safe drinking water in Nigeria and put pressure on state governments to provide water as a right to the citizens. Most boreholes which we assume to be clean are sunk close to sewage systems in residential areas. Such proximity could result in a cholera or typhoid outbreak that has the potential to contaminate cross-border waterways.

Robbing people of the right to safe drinking water must now be seen as a violation of a fundamental human right which could even get an accelerated hearing at world institutions like the International Criminal Court. Even though government officials pledge to recognise the provision of water as a right, there is no commitment. Except for one or two states that manage to provide water to a handful of selected districts in Nigeria, the taps are dry and permanently out of service.

Some contaminants found in groundwater include arsenic, nitrate, chlorinated hydrocarbons, petroleum hydrocarbons, chromium and other metals as well as pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, etc. Even though some of these do occur naturally at lower concentrations, the concentrations are higher when generated by human activities with the possibility of contaminated water moving from the area of contamination to a wider area underground.

In the absence of effective governance in the provision of clean drinking water, maybe government needs to give us warning alerts identifying the level of contamination of groundwater in our areas since almost all Nigerians bathe in and drink unmonitored and uncontrolled poisons in water.

• Simon Abah is a teacher, writer based in Port Harcourt.