Water is the lifeblood of ecosystems, vital to human health and well-being and a precondition for economic prosperity. But research also shows that untreated water has caused more damage to human health, John Oba, reports on the federal government setting up a technical committee on Standard for Ambient Water Quality and Validation of roadmap for water quality management.
Various studies in Nigeria have shown that anthropogenic activities have depleted the quality of human’s most abundant resources, water. Experts in the sector have over the years raised concern over water contamination through industrialization and urbanization in Nigeria which is leading the cause of water-related diseases.
It is estimated that over 66.3 million Nigerians lack access to clean drinking water, which is largely attributed to the pollution from cement production. oil exploration, agricultural activities, and industrial or mining activities. Several reports have shown that contamination through cement and crude production in Nigeria has caused toxins accumulation in aquatic lives, leading to health risk to most citizens consumers.
Water pollution in must rural communities with industrial activities across the country has suffered constant epidemic of water-borne diseases such as diarrhea, dysentery, cholera, and gastroenteritis. Cement industries and oil companies in the Niger Delta are largely responsible for releasing effluents into water bodies.
According to WaterAid, the scarcity of clean water and pollution of fresh water has therefore led to a situation in which one-fifth of the urban dwellers in developing countries and three quarters of their rural dwelling population do not have access to reasonably safe water supplies.
The natural quality of rivers and streams at any point reflects the quality of upstream contributions of surface run-off and groundwater discharge. The various water bodies in the country are used for various purposes such as fishing, transportation, sand mining, irrigation, recreation, abstraction for industrial and domestic purposes as well as electric generation.
Water Quality
Water quality is the suitability of water to sustain various uses or processes and ambient is “relating to the immediate surroundings of something. According to experts, ambient water quality refers to natural, untreated water in rivers, lakes, and groundwaters.
Good ambient water quality ensures the continued availability of important freshwater ecosystem services and does not negatively affect human health. Untreated wastewater from domestic sources, industry and agriculture can be detrimental to ambient water quality. Regular monitoring of freshwaters allows for the timely response to potential sources of pollution and enables stricter enforcement of laws and discharge permits. In this report you can learn more about water quality monitoring and initial status findings.
Some experts in the sector believed that the prevention of pollution at source, the precautionary principle and the prior licensing of wastewater discharges by competent authorities have become key elements of successful policies for preventing, controlling and reducing inputs of hazardous substances, nutrients and other water pollutants from point sources into aquatic ecosystems.
According to the Minister of Water Resources, Engr. Suleiman Adamu, at the Technical Committee meeting on Nigerian Standard for Ambient Water Quality and Validation of the Nigerian Roadmap for Water Quality Management the government’s determination and commitment to improve water quality and sanitation systems in Nigeria are clearly reflected through various completed and on-going projects and programmes in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector, ‘especially in our drive to end open defecation and improve water quality management.’
Challenge with Nigeria water source
To stakeholders in the water sector, there are still grave enforcement issues in Nigeria as quality guidelines are still being contravened at no cost to the infringer due to the corrupt socio-political circumstances of the country. The quality of surface water, groundwater, rain water are believed to be generally poor.
Several reports shows that groundwater pollution come due to landfill leachate, oil and gas exploration and production, sewage and hydrogeological interactions of the groundwater with the base rock. It is said that the hydrogeological effect has led to the observation of lead and barium in groundwater in many locations across the country, while there are concern over rainwater in Nigeria which has low pH though fairly clean.
He said poor water quality affects people, the economy and the environment. Contaminated water is the primary cause of diseases such as typhoid fever, diarrhea and dysentery in Nigeria.
Rivers and Open Waterbodies Monitoring Activities Programme of the Ministry according to him has revealed the indiscriminate wastewater discharge (Domestic and Industrial), open defecation and dumping of refuse into rivers, gutters and waterways as the major sources of pollution to Nigeria freshwater.
Standard for Drinking water
It is no news that the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, has strong links to all of the other SDGs, this is the reason the Federal government through the Ministry of Water Resources sets up Technical Committee for the establishment of Nigerian Standard for Drinking Water Quality (NSDQW) which will ensure the protection of the consumers.
This standard is expected to speed up the process of upgrading non-protected water systems and improving the management of all drinking water systems in the country.
Adamu speaking on the importance of water quality guard, said the ministry of Water Resources through Integrated Water Resources Management Commission is already developing Water Source Protection Guidelines to reverse this ugly trend of poor water quality management.
“Community Water Safety Plan (CWSP) is another programme established to build capacity of the rural community on the concept, processes/techniques to help the rural community identify risky behaviours or practices that may introduce contamination to drinking water nationwide. We have also put in place Nigeria Standard for Drinking Water Quality (NSDWQ) for quality assurance purposes, and currently, the development of Nigerian Standards for ambient and irrigation water quality are on-going.
“As you may be aware, water quality management is a core component of water resources management geared toward maintaining the integrity of the freshwater ecosystems of the nation in order to protect public health, enhance food security and alleviate poverty. Water quality being one of the components of water resources management is currently receiving greater attention of the government compared to what was obtainable in the distant past. The previous poor attentions to water quality management which had negatively impacted ecosystem balance, economic growth, public health, education, inequality and climate change has been upturned by present administration.
“Statistics from the 2021 WASH National Outcome Routine Mapping (NORM) report showed that about 23.2 % of Nigerian population practice open detection, while 55.5 % of population do not have access to basic sanitation services. We must redouble our efforts and work together to meet the nation’s WASH needs, and make good progress towards achieving the SDG water and sanitation targets.
“In our quest to strengthen water quality management and enhance ecosystem balancing, a lot of programmes are being undertaking by the Ministry. One of these programmes is National Water Quality Reference Laboratories and Monitoring Network. This programme has established eight water quality laboratories at Lagos, Minna, Akure, Enugu, Gombe, Sokoto, Maiduguri and Kano for the purpose of water quality monitoring and surveillance. Currently, the eight laboratories are monitoring rivers and open waterbodies to achieve 100% proportion of water bodies with good ambient water quality by the year 2030 in line with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 6, indicator 6.3.2,” he said.
He charged the members of the committee; he said the meeting essential as it is the only avenue for the critical stakeholders to make input and necessary contributions to the development of Nigerian Standard for Ambient Water Quality and Nigerian Roadmap for Water Quality Management.
Addressing delegates during the meeting, the Director General, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Mallam Farouk Salim said the technical committee meeting is a critical stage in standard development process where, knowledge, expertise, experiences and scientific information and data are shared by the members to achieve consensus.
He said the standards development process involves collaboration and engagement of experts and relevant stakeholders while SON serve as the secretariat and custodian of all National standards in the country.
Salid who was represented by the director, Inspectorate and Compliance Department, Dr. Omolara Okunlola, said: “The over-stretched and polluted freshwater resources in the country pose a threat to public health and bio-ecosystem sustainability as well as socio-economic well-being of the nation.
