FORENSIC FORCE: Water, water everywhere

As with many other things, Nigeria is blessed with abundant water. From rivers, lakes, reservoirs, springs and even rainfall, the country has all, and more. Unfortunately, as with many other things too, this abundance has not translated into potable water in our homes or even for industrial and agricultural uses.

Public water supplies started in Nigeria early in the twentieth century and were managed at the lowest administrative level. Lagos, Calabar, Kano, Ibadan, Abeokuta, Ijebu Ode and Enugu were among the pace setters. The schemes were maintained with revenue from water sales with no subvention from government.

With the creation of regional governments in the early 1950s, the responsibility for developing new water schemes was taken over by the regional governments and subsequently, states.

Sadly, rapid population growth has not been accompanied by an increase in the delivery of water supply. Optimistic estimates indicate that currently only about 50% of the urban and 20% of the semi-urban population have access to reliable water supply. Realistically, urban water supply coverage may be as low as 30% of the total population while rural coverage is said to be in the same range.

In the 8 years of the last administration, it is estimated that about 1 trillion naira was spent on water resources development. That amount has mostly gone down the drain (or non-existing pipes) Today, many households, often the poorest, end up purchasing water from private vendors much more expensively than from the public supply. Those who can, simply drill boreholes.

Water supply services, where they exist, are unreliable, of low quality and are not sustainable because of difficulties in management, operation, pricing and failure to recover costs. Many water supply systems show extensive deterioration and poor utilisation of existing capacities, due to under-maintenance and the wrong channelling of funds.

The nexus between water supply and key sectors, including health, education, agriculture, and environment are obvious. The experience of Nigeria shows clear linkages between lack of water and decline in indicators in health, education and productivity due to man-hours wasted in search of water. It also manifests in the spread of diseases, higher infant mortality, high absenteeism in schools and at work, and lower productivity.

Other figures show only 48% of the inhabitants of the urban and semi-urban areas of Nigeria and 39% of rural areas have access to potable water supply. In spite of these low figures, the average delivery to the urban population is only 32 litres per capita per day (lpcd) and that of rural areas is 10 lpcd. About 71% of those living in rural communities do not have access to safe water supply or adequate sanitation.

In terms of economic development, water resources have a substantial and immediate impact on poverty reduction in Nigeria. If the objective of poverty reduction is to be achieved, the water sector will need to be fully developed. Also, in addition to promoting irrigated agriculture, water supply is an input in many industries. The lack of water supply in manufacturing in Nigeria is a drawback to production and productivity.

A country that recognises the value of water would show more commitment to water resources development beyond the billions voted to the sector annually, which like in the power sector hardly improves the situation. Nigeria's water resources are assets any other country would envy. Of the over 200 dams in the country, a third are not in direct use and therefore cannot lend themselves to use for tourism and recreational activities such as yachting, fishing and other water games.

Economic opportunities exist in the water sector to create much needed jobs. Since motorised boreholes depend on electricity or diesel, which are either erratic or too expensive, a viable alternative is solar powered boreholes.

Due to the fact that solar panels are cost effective and require almost no maintenance, any investor who goes into the manufacture or assembly of solar panels would be in good business.

Opportunities exist for the manufacture of water treatment plants, most of which have to be imported at huge cost. Nigeria has huge deposits of kaolin, which can be easily extracted and processed for water treatment. As emphasis on boreholes reduces, focus should shift to the harnessing of renewable surface water supplies, which have to be treated before reticulation.

Here too, investment opportunities abound.

All said and done, it will take a government with vision to recognise the value of water as huge assets; assuming that a government with vision can flow from the rusty pipes of our political system any time soon.