179 Millions Nigerians Do Not Have Access To Safely Drinking Water — NIWE

The Nigerian Institute of Water Engineers (NIWE) on Friday said about 179 million Nigerians do not have access to safely managed drinking water services.

The body also disclosed that about 67% of Nigerian population does not have access to basic water supply.

The NIWE National Chairman, Engr. (Dr.) Adeyinka Sobowale, who made the disclosure at a press conference in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, as part of activities marking this year’s World Water Day, with the them, ‘Water for Peace “, about two-third of the country’s population use drinking water supplies contaminated by thermotolerant coliform at the point of collection.

While lamenting that about 79% waterworks in Nigeria were either non-functional or partially functional or completely moribund, the NIWE President noted that the research on WASH service in the country shows that Nigeria remains far from achieving the SDG 6 targets.

He called on state governments across the country, to grant full autonomy to State water supply agencies in order to attract investors to the sector, stressing that this will require adequate
legislation that will remove unnecessary interference in their operation and management.

“There is need to develop of Water Resources/Water Supply Master Plan for each of the 36 States of the Federation with a well-defined Action Plan for implementation”.

“It has become imperative for all States to establish water regulatory agencies to adequately regulate the activities of service providers in their domain. Furthermore,
groundwater regulatory frameworks for the entire country should be developed”.