Improved water quality, access key to cholera eradication – Water specialist

Prof Lekan Oyebande, a Water Specialist, has urged states’ water boards to focus on improving water quality and access in order to contain cholera outbreak in the country.

Oyebande, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja yesterday, emphasised the importance of water service providers in containing recurring cholera surge.

Some states reported to have repeated cases of cholera outbreak since October 2013 are Ebonyi, Benue, Nassarawa, Kano, Jigawa, Osun, Oyo, Lagos, Zamfara, and recently rumoured cases in Mpape and Dei Dei, in the FCT.
Oyebande, therefore, stressed the need for systematic monitoring of water services in all state water boards, agencies and private service providers.

“Water supply is basic; it must be adequate in quality and quantity; we must make this available to our people and make sure that they use it well.

“Cholera and all these other diseases, we shouldn’t be experiencing them now if we have adequate water supply and in good quality.
“If you go to the villages and see the quality of water they are using; even the ones that come through pipes, the gutters and wells are polluted, seriously polluted.

“We need to have a survey; go round and make sure that the quality of water we are supplying to our people is good enough.”
Oyebande further underscored the need for increased awareness about sanitation and hygiene in communities which, he observed, had been grossly neglected.

“We must intensify efforts on both community and urban sanitation if diseases like cholera should be contained, because some of these are caused by poor hygiene practices. (NAN)