As essential to human life as water is, governments somehow ignore this essential commodity. OKECHUKWU ONUEGBU, in this report, writes on the situation in Anambra state.
Agencies/ laws yet no performance
Also established by law is Small Towns Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (STOWA) charged with the responsibilities of advising the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) departments of LGAs, the state government and the Water Consumers Associations (WCA) on technical matters in the small towns water supply and sanitation sub-sector, assistance in organising and managing water supply systems, among others. STOWA is for communities with over 5,000 population namely, Amichi, Awkzu and others.
Another one is the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASSA) charged to work in consultation with WASHCOM (Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Committee) departments of the relevant LGA and WASH in the communities. They all agreed and designed appropriate technology for water supply to each community and coordinate the construction and other functions. RUWASSA is to take responsibilities of communities below 5,000 populations.
There is also Anambra State Water Supply Services Regulatory Commission whose numerous objectives include ensuring adequate supply of water to consumers including low income or vulnerable consumers. They are to ensure that the rates and fees charged by water services providers are sufficient to finance their activities and allow for reasonable earnings for sufficient operation, safety, security, reliability and quality service in the production and delivery of water to consumers.
The law also empowered the state government to facilitate and coordinate the roles of ministries, departments and agencies as well as other stakeholders in the state water supply and sanitation services, while the ministry is to formulate policy, review, implement and monitor water resources management and related issues, liaise with the federal government, other state ministries, departments and agencies, LGAs, communities, international donor organisations and NGOs.
No implementation
Unfortunately, however, this law which also provides rights and obligations of water consumers, sanitation and environmental hygiene, among others, is not yet operational. Blueprint investigation revealed that apart from RUWASSA which is currently operational probably due to funding from European Union and UNICEF, the Anambra state Urban Water Asset Holdings Corporation provided to integrate the moribund water corporation, the STOWA and the Anambra State Water Supply Services Regulatory Commission have not been constituted since 2015 when the law came into force.
Notwithstanding all these, the state government had consistently captured the ministry, RUWASSA, STOWA, some water projects and water resources in its budget since 2012 till date. For instance, in 2013, the capital expenditure for water resources and rural development was N2,642,733,734.41; N3,985,000,000 in 2014; N1,512,280,000 in 2015; N1,663,507,996 in 2016; N1,746,683,435 in 2017; N1,203,600,000 in 2018; N892, 500,000 in 2019; while water resources and public utilities are N3.75bn in the 2020 budget estimate Governor Obiano submitted to the state House of Assembly on September 26, 2019.
Similarly, the Anambra State Ministry of Public Utilities and Water Resources (also known as Ministry of Public Utilities) in the following years had budget estimates of N4,789,290 in 2013; N130,500,000 in 2014; N150,000,000 in 2015; N156,750,023 in 2016; N 164,587,550 in 2017; N5,396,200,000 in 2018; N5,666,010,000 in 2019 and N5,949,310,500 in 2020.
Several attempts made by this paper to obtain information on this and other issues from the state government were not successful as at press time. Sometimes in August, Blueprint met with the state commissioner for information and public enlightenment, Mr C. Don Adinuba, to comment on this but was referred to the state commissioner for public utilities, Engr. Emeka Ezenwanne, unfortunately, the commissioner could not be accessed after several visits to his office since August till September 18, 2019. Ezenwanne, however, told Blueprint to return on Wednesday September 25th as he had granted several interviews that day. On September 25, he was not seen as at 12.30pm when our correspondent arrived. His staff told Blueprint to return on Friday 27th as he had gone to another official engagement and could only attend to people on that date.
On Friday 27, Blueprint repeated the visit to the office but Ezenwanne, after inquiring of the popularity of this paper in Anambra state and where the reporter resides, said he had spoken to many journalists and again, told this reporter to repeat his visit without providing any specific date and left him unattended to.
Reactions from people
Following the state government’s inability to invest on public water scheme, private individuals and politicians embarked on digging boreholes all over the streets for commercial and household uses. This also gave rise to the establishment of sachet water companies, among others, in the state.
Chief Nwoche Osi, chairman, Anambra State Water Corporation Welfare Association, while appealing to Governor Obiano and the Ministry of Public Utilities for the activation of the requisite institutions enshrined in the state water supply and sanitation law 2015, said the law would help to ease the sufferings of staff of the state water board, the poor and entire Anambra residents, if fully implemented.
Osi lamented that, “Anambra state had continued to live in chronic and dire shortage of potable drinking water with increasing economic and health burdens. This is so because the quality of water from the unregulated private borehole supplies is doubtful and had imposed additional financial burden which many of the populace cannot afford.
“The damage done on the environments and ground through indiscriminate drilling of boreholes cannot be overemphasised. The intervention of EU, UNICEF and other donor agencies in the water supply has no future management arrangement. The Greater Onitsha Water Supply scheme which was rehabilitated in 2014 had been vandalised due to the application of Public Private Partnership (PPP) in the state.”
Others appealed to Governor Obiano to implement the Industrial Arbitration Panel Award (IAP Award) of 2012 which AUPCTRE had approached Enugu Division of Industrial Court to direct the state government to effect the appropriate promotions and salary increments across board to all its workers in ANSWC as well as to pay pension and gratuity to the retired workers.
They also want the governor to restructure and reorient the Ministry of Public Utilities on its roles and functions as stated in the law, deploy the active staff of the corporation to the new UNAHC or other relevant ministries, department and agencies, transfer pensioners of the corporation to Anambra State Pension Board as stated in Section 154 (4) of WSS Law, rehabilitate the workers and the water supply facilities in the state.
Likely consequences
Meanwhile, Mr Chimezie Ibedu, a geologist, said, “Some inherent dangers with excess digging of borehole are our state is sitting on a massive underground water body. Every well sunk draw water from there. Excessive draw out in arid regions might cause acute depletion of the underground aquifer such that had caused environmental crisis presently in the Chad Basin. Our saving grace in Anambra-Imo River Basin however is proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, the Niger and its tributaries.
“Another danger is the rising risk of contamination. For instance, if the required distance from pit toilets, soak-away and industrial effluent disposal sites is not strictly observed, contamination may occur. If failed wells are not properly filled, it poses dander to children and animals. It may also lead to landslide knowing how prone to gully erosion our environment is.”
Also speaking, another geologist, Mr Collins Ekweali, said it is unhealthy not to have a water scheme. “Being that water is part of our everyday meal, when one is deprived of it, there is no way of saying that he is healthy. The absence of active water scheme in the state is actually not healthy.”
Ekweali, however, urged those executing borehole projects in the state to make use of professionals, because according to him, making use of quacks could lead to the provision of water contaminated by surface water run-off, infiltration and other sort of things which are unhealthy for humans.