Responsibility of water supply in Nigeria is shared among the three levels of government. The Federal Government is in charge of water resources management; state governments have the primary responsibility for urban water supply and local governments, together with the communities, are responsible for rural water supply.
Health experts have affirmed the fact that unsafe water has a lot of health implications. Poor water supply is a major route for transmission of typhoid fever, cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis A, and other water-borne diseases. Thus, it makes Nigeria, besides Guatemala, Niger, Yemen and Bangladesh, to also contribute majorly to the 40 per cent of the children aged under five mortality in the world due to the consumption of unsafe water. Therefore, the necessity for government at all levels to urgently provide funds for the provision of improved water supplies of better quality and greater convenience to the citizenry cannot be over-emphasised.
According to the gazette of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (FMWR, 20.00), all 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory have Water Boards/Corporations or Public Utilities Boards managing their public water supply undertakings.
State governments via regulations, policies and related programmes are encouraged to combat this challenge of providing potable water supply to the residents of their states. Rivers State with capital city – Port Harcourt comprising Port Harcourt City and Obio/Akpor Local Government Areas, is not left out; its water board originally started in the late 1940s, half a century later, cannot boast of adequate public water supply services.
Going by the 2006 national census, the population of Rivers State was 5,185,420, while that of Port Harcourt – for the purpose of this, is inclusive of Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor Local Government Areas – was 1,382,592. The growth rate of this city is placed at 3.4% per annum, with the city covering 32,781 hectares of the state landmass. Although its water board was established in the late 1940s, almost 60 years after, public water supply remains elusive. This, indeed, had been a huge concern to successive administrations in the state.
Perhaps that inform the reason why uncertified boreholes are a common feature in homes in Port Harcourt, either for primary or complimentary water supply particularly in the state capital and its environs. This suggests less reliance or dependence on the established Rivers State Water Board (RSWB) which was meant to service the populace with sufficient potable water.
Traditionally, the function of Water Utility Management (WUM) is basically to provide water supply services to the urban areas, although over time, many utilities and municipalities have failed to provide these services effectively. Some of the challenges of WUM as analysed by Marin (2009) in four dimensions of performance of water utilities include access, quality of service, operational efficiency and tariff levels.
Against this backdrop, The Tide welcomes the recent pronouncement made by the Rivers State Government that it would spend $328 million dollars to provide water for the densely populated Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor Local Government Areas of the state.
Interestingly, the State Commissioner for Water Resources, Hon. Tamunosisi Gogo -Jaja, who made the disclosure while briefing journalists on the sidelines of the 2020 World Water Day said the project which will soon commence, is jointly funded by the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the Rivers State Government, under the Port Harcourt water supply and sanitation project.
According to the state government, the project will coordinate water services providers, engender comprehensive water resource management, reduce water-borne diseases, increase the volume of potable water delivered, and reduce open defecation. The government disclosed that already a letter of no objection has been awarded to the state government by the African Development Bank and explained that the reason for the previous delay of the project was because the state government was determined to observe transparency and international best practices in the award of contracts.
Suffice it to say that clean accessible water for all is an essential part of life, we see it as worrisome that despite sufficient fresh water all around us, poor funding or decayed infrastructure have caused millions of people, mostly children, die from diseases associated with inadequate water supply, sanitation and hygiene in Nigeria.
There is no gainsaying the fact that water scarcity, poor water quality and inadequate sanitation have negatively impacted food security, livelihood choices and educational opportunities for poor families across Nigeria. We, therefore, call on the state government to use this collaboration with the other agencies to set standards for drinking water quality and with its partners implement various technical and financial programmes to ensure drinking water safety in the state capital. These efforts geared towards the provision of potable water to all in the two local government areas will, no doubt, lead to an increased productivity of individuals.
While we commend the lofty efforts of the state government, we also urge the 23 local government areas of the state to tap into the window of opportunity opened in the synergy between the state government and the international agencies to execute water projects in their areas. Though the provision of water supply is capital-intensive, it is a basic necessity for the well-being of the citizenry.
In view of this, the local authorities can individually or collectively venture into water supply through Public-Private Partnership in order to ensure adequate production, distribution and, perhaps, sale of potable water to the people. Above all, the Federal Government should urgently implement fully the provisions of the approved 2000 Nigeria’s National Water Supply and Sanitation Policy to provide the leverage for effective monitoring and management of potable water supply in Nigeria.