Thirsty Nigerians and Census 2006ByZayyad I. Muhammad The 22nd day of March every year is set aside as world water day; water scarcity and population growth are two correlated issues, coincidentally, the year 2006 world water day (WWD) will be celebrated in Nigeria while Nigerians are being counted on the second day of census 2006, millions may had been counted on first day and probably more than half have no access to clean water.
Availability of clean water is a fundamental issue for socio-economic development of Nigeria, as Nigeria’s population is swelling in a geometric rate, there most be an increased effort in developing clean water allocation strategy, because as population and development increases, the quest by the public especially the poor for clean, portable and affordable water for domestic use, increases.
Millions of Nigerians have no access to clean and portable water; coping with water scarcity is a challenging responsibility that requires decision makers to bringing water related issues to the top of political agenda; it is a global believe that poor communities suffers the greatest burden from inadequate water supplies, but in Nigeria, poor communities, rural and urban areas are facing the dilemma of coping with scarcity of clean water.
The focal purpose of every population head count is to generate data for long-term planning, and smoothen the progress of future development of any society, the year 2006 population and housing census is also aimed at this objective, but has Nigeria ever used the results derived from her precious population census, will the upshot of the 2006 head count aid in achieving the first of the eight goals of the UN millenniums Development Goals (MDGs) which is: eradicating poverty and hunger, how about the NEPAD objective of ensuring sustainable access to safe and adequate clean water supply and sanitation, especially for the poor.
The year 2006 world water day (WWD) is themed ‘ water and culture’ and this is to draws attention to the fact that there are as many ways of viewing, using, and celebrating water as there are cultural traditions across the world, but in Nigeria, at childhood age, waking–up in the morning, picking a bucket and rushing to queue or search for water is an activity that million of people thought to be a culture and tradition of their people, but in later part of life one realized it isn’t so; but something is wrong, there is a colossal shameful neglect for provision of this com modity that every body uses every day.
The United Nations general assembly, in 2003 proclaimed the years 2005 to 2015 as the international Decade for action ‘water for life’, These commitments include the Millennium Development Goals to reduce by half the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water by 2015 and to stop unsustainable exploitation of water resources. At the World Summit in Johannesburg in 2002, two other goals were adopted: to aim to develop integrated water resource management and water efficiency plans by 2005 and to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people who do not have access to basic sanitation, can Nigeria achieved these, with our uncontrolled rapidly growing population, wide spread scarcity of clean and portable water, poor access to sanitation and health, limping capacity-building, inadequate financing and little or poor advocacy strive, poor Resources Management and unreliable energy.
The fact of the matter is, there is no reliable and established official demographic data in Nigeria which will assist in development planning, in 1990 the World Bank estimated the population of Nigeria as 119 million with annual growth rate of 3.3 percent; that is a growth of 3.9 million yearly, that would translate to a total population of over 181 million by 2006; with an average human wate r consumption of four liters a day, Nigerians need 0ver 700 million liters of clean water a day! Although population growth projections are uncertain, but soaring rate of population growth is typical of most sub-Saharan African countries.
At the end of the census exercise, millions of Nigerians who are ‘caged’ in the prison of scarcity of clean water, would be counted, as well as the privilege few who get water by a touch of a tap or squeezing of a bottle’s cap. Political leaders need to know the world water day celebration has to go beyond conferences and seminars, and populations census has to be repositioned to serve only for developmental purposes especially in planning for strategy in allocation of safe water, rathe r than the unnecessary politics attached to it, it is believed that demand for water doubled as population grow, therefore, our strategy for provision of safe, portable and affordable water most take into reflection our population growth, for Nigeria to achieved the Millennium Goal Development (MDGs), the NEPAD objective and the NEEDS programmes to yield fruitful result , a proactive and pragmatic safe water provision programme most be put in place, a system that would give the poor access to clean and portable water source that is reliable, dependable , maintainable and responsive to population growth, because MGDs, NEPAD and NEEDS programmes cannot succeed in a society with high population desolated by water- borne diseases.
For millions of Nigerians, the end of one tedious day mark the beginning of another, the first thing that comes to the minds of millions of Nigerians in the early morning of every day is where to get clean water from rural to urban areas, women and children have to travel distanced-long to quench their thirst, many cannot go to school or go to school late; we all hoped of life free of disease, but today million of children are battling with water-borne disease, some are blinded while many are crippled.
As Nigeria is celebrating the world water day, millions of her citizens have left their homes traveling hundreds of kilometers in search of water to quench their thirst, and probably census 2006 enumerators may not meet at their homes and count them. Those at the top who quench their thirst by a squeeze of a bottle’s lid, those that probably have not giving any weight to the world water day 2006 by stipulating 21- 25 March as census day, those that would be sitting at conference and seminar halls celebrating the world water day; time has come to recognized that it is hard at the bottom, we have to use our population census for development especially in the area of provision of safe and affordable water for the poor, though development rests on the foundations of democratic governance, the rule of law, respect for human rights and peace and security.
Zayyad I. Muhammad writes from Jimeta, Nigeria zaymohd@yahoo.com
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