‘Nigeria among top 10 countries without access to water’

Nigeria features third in the world on a list of top ten countries with the greatest number of people living without access to safe water, an international agency, WaterAid Nigeria, has said. The agency said that the country remained one of the worst in the world for household water access.

The Country Representative of the agency, Dr. Michael Ojo, said that the country’s sanitation continued to worsen with just only 29 per cent of the population having access to improved sanitation services.

Ojo, who spoke at a policy dialogue organised by the agency to celebrate its 20th existence in Nigeria, explained that despite claims by Federal Government that access to water and sanitation had reached 67 and 41 per cent respective, added that over 60 million Nigerians and 100million, still lacked access to clean water and basic sanitation.

He said that lack of access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) was having negative impact on Nigeria’s economic and social development, including progress on gender equality.

Citing a report, the WaterAid Nigeria boss said: “Nigeria features 17th on the list of the top 20 most improved countries for water access over the past 15 years, the Giant of Africa is also one of the worst in the world for household water access (that is, piped water on premises) and features third in the world on a list of the top ten countries with the greatest numbers of people living without access to safe water.

“The lack of WASH and other essential services creates a massive crisis for developing countries like Nigeria – undermining health systems, education, economic development, and progress on gender equality. WASH underpins progress on a whole range of SDG Goals and it is crucial in our view that our Government recognises the importance of WASH for Nigeria’s economic and social development, and ensures that Goal 6 is embedded in national action plans,” he stressed.

Ojo said that the agency, in the past 29 years, had been transforming lives in Nigeria through facilitating access to water, sanitation and hygiene.

He said that the agency’s work has led to sustainable access to water, sanitation and hygiene for 2 million Nigerians.

While reiterating WaterAid’s vision, he said, the organisation desires a world where everyone has access to safe water and sanitation. “Since 1981, WaterAid has reached 23 million people with safe water and, since 2004, 21 million people with sanitation.

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