Water is free, but gaining access to it is not. And even when access is established, maintaining access to it comes at its own cost. The journey to ensuring the sustainability of access to clean water goes beyond focusing on providing access and relying on the communities to take ownership of the facilities. But on the system of sustainability put in place to sustain the access.

 

Urban communities in Nigeria often enjoy more formal services compared to rural communities. The rural-urban divide continues to increase amidst increasing poverty. Through their rural water supply agencies (RUWASSA), most state governments in Nigeria support rural communities in maintaining their broken pumps. But this is usually done through a formal process of written letters from the community to RUWASSA and sometimes passed to the State Ministry of Water Resources. The turnaround time can be months or a year when the budget becomes available and approval is provided. 

 

As one will think, when you lose access to clean water for three days, you must have exhausted your backup supply. And the communities retard to poorer sources, re-exposing them to the risks of the contamination of waterborne diseases and associated socio-economic challenges. 

Two of the most deprived states of clean water in Nigeria are Kebbi and Sokoto States, where only 6 out of 10 people have access. And two out of these six people lose access to it in the second year after gaining access.

 

With this finding of the quick loss of access and government maintenance procedure, we supported the establishment of a social enterprise to provide frequent and responsive maintenance services to these communities. This looked like the silver bullet to the maintenance issues. However, communities needed to pay for this maintenance service monthly by contributing funds to a community bank account. Informal means of saving funds do not guarantee the safekeeping and accountability of their funds.

 

As we worked with 31 communities, we realised that many of the members elected by the communities to represent them in maintaining the water service could not be signatories to bank accounts. And even many other unelected community members could not be signatories. They couldn’t because they do not have a formal identity card recognised by the banks. 

 

The National ID card, which is free of charge, is the easiest solution. But even at that, such registration services are not available within a 15km radius of each of these communities. They will have to travel to the state capital, a 30-60km journey for some, at their own cost. Many only go to these capitals once ill and are referred to the general hospital from their local primary healthcare centres.

 

Ensuring the continued provision of the guaranteed service by the social enterprise can only be done if these communities open a savings account to enable them to pool their funds through monthly subscription amounts. The social enterprise promises less than 48-hour downtime. 

 

Faced with these people’s obstacles and poverty, many had to be encouraged to get formally identified and open these bank accounts.

 

As we continue to promote sustainability and the achievement of SDGs in Nigeria, the sustainability of some of these services will come down to formalised institutions set up to provide support. The challenge is now more evident without identity numbers identifying Nigerians and with 70% financially excluded.

 

The individual elements that interact to provide the water services at the onset must play a critical role in either designing the architecture of the maintenance service or being a part of it. 

Written by Sadiq Abubakar GULMA.

 

World Wetlands Day is a global awareness campaign celebrated every year on 2nd February to highlight the value of wetlands. This day also marks the anniversary of the Convention on Wetlands, an intergovernmental treaty adopted in 1971 and which now has a global membership of 172 countries (Nigeria included), officially known as Contracting Parties.

World Wetlands Day is a global awareness campaign celebrated every year on 2nd February to highlight the importance and state of our Wetlands.

Wetlands

A wetland is simply a land that is covered by water (could be fresh water, salt water, or a mixture of both). A wetland has its own ecosystem and a variety of plants and animals that inhabit it such as alligators, snakes, turtles, and salamanders. A wetland does not only consist of reptiles, as some birds like plovers, grouse, herons, etc are birds found in wetlands around the world.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) described wetlands as transitional areas, sandwiched between permanently flooded deepwater environments and well-drained uplands, where the water table is usually at or near the surface, or the land is covered by shallow water. They include mangroves, marshes (salt, brackish, intermediate, and fresh), swamps, forested wetlands, bogs, wet prairies, prairie potholes, and vernal pools.

Image: A wetland

Image source: Pixabay

Image: A wetland

Image source: Pixabay

Wetlands in Nigeria

Nigeria is a vast nation blessed with numerous natural resources among which are wetlands. Some of the Wetlands in Nigeria include the Imo River, Lake Chad, Ogun-Osun River, Niger Delta, Niger River, Benue River, and Qua Iboec River estuary. They are very important to the ecosystem of the nation and home to many natural resources ranging from plants, and animals to crude oil. Oil spillage has been a major source of concern for the loss of the wetlands ecosystem in Nigeria, and the concern keeps growing as the oil keeps spilling due to oil pipeline vandalism or during extraction.

Image: Oil gushing from oil wellhead

Source: Reuters

Image: Oil spilled on a wetland

Source: The Guardian

Importance of Wetlands

• Habitat

Wetlands house a variety of plants that are very essential to our ecosystem. They are also home to a variety of animals ranging from vertebrates and reptiles to mammals whose existence is solely in wetlands.

• Water quality

Wetlands improve the quality of water in the ecosystem by trapping the runoff water and filtering it through chemical, biological, and physical processes before the water reaches the open water. 

• Flood Control

The process of filtering the runoff water prevents the water from going to the open water directly. It slows down the flow of water that goes into the open waters and thereby prevents its overflow. Additionally, The roots of the plants in a wetland also hold the soil together and make it more resistant to erosion.

• Recreation and Aesthetics

Wetlands are pleasing to the eye and sometimes included in landscape designs. Wetlands are serene natural environments that serve as destination spots for a lot of people for recreation and leisure.

WWD 2023 Theme

The theme for this year’s world wetlands day is Wetlands Restoration. Wetlands are disappearing three times faster than forests, and more than 35% of wetlands have been degraded or lost since 1970. Reversing this trend is critical and it will take the collective effort of individuals, the private sector, and governments to restore the wetlands to what they once were.

The major responsibility of protecting the wetlands rests on the government and they can start by spreading awareness on the importance of our wetlands, their current states/conditions, and how we can all join hands to save them. Government can also protect the Wetlands through zoning (zoning developments that could harm the Wetlands away from the Wetlands) and by monitoring the activities that go on, in and around the Wetlands. Individuals and organizations can help the Wetlands by properly disposing of their wastes so these wastes won’t end up in the Wetlands. 

All hands are needed on deck for the wetlands restoration and it starts with you and me. The least we can do is to raise awareness for the saddening conditions of our wetlands and highlight what is at risk if we continue to lose our precious wetlands. Everyone has a responsibility to spread the message beyond  2nd February by amplifying the issues using the hashtags (#GenerationRestoration, #ForWetlands) for our social media posts concerning the wetlands. For more information, you can visit the official website of WWD.