UNICEF Says 26.5m Nigerian Children Can’t Access Enough Water

kpakpandofm
Read Time:3 Minute, 3 Second

The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF has disclosed that no fewer than 26.5 million Nigerian Children do not have enough water to meet their daily needs and are experiencing high or extremely high water vulnerability.
UNICEF made this known in a statement to commemorate the 2021 World Water Day.

According to the statement, more than 1.42 billion people globally – including 450 million children – are living in areas of high or extremely high water vulnerability.
In a new analysis released by UNICEF, one in five children worldwide lack water to meet their everyday needs.
The analysis, is part of the Water Security For All Initiative, identifying areas where physical water scarcity risks overlap with poor water service levels.

The statement quotes Mr Peter Hawkins, UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, as saying that Communities living in these areas depend on surface water, unimproved sources of water, or water that can take more than 30 minutes to collect.
According to Hawkins, children are the biggest victims of world water crisis as such that When wells dry up, children are the ones missing school to fetch water, When droughts diminish food supplies, children suffer from malnutrition and stunting,
And When floods hit, children fall ill from waterborne illnesses. Hawkins also asserted that when water is not available in Nigerian communities, children unfortunately are unable to wash their hands to fight off diseases.

The UNICEF data also shows that children in more than 80 countries live in areas with high or extremely high water vulnerability with Eastern and Southern Africa with the highest proportion, followed by West and Central Africa (31 per cent), South Asia (25 per cent), and the Middle East (23 per cent).

Hawkins further noted that in 2020, the Nigerian Government and UNICEF released a WASH NORM survey which showed some progress, through the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and its partners to strengthen the sector’s planning and monitoring, while declaring that much more work needs to be done in the country to ensure that all Nigerians have access to adequate and quality water for hygiene services.

The UNICEF boss further emphasized on how Sustainable and equitable access to safe drinking water is still posing a challenge in Nigeria, with over 86 per cent of Nigerians lacking access to a safely managed drinking water source, stating that The problem is compounded by poor drinking water quality and lack of equity in access.

He further opined out that the country must as a matter of urgency address the water crisis in Nigeria to prevent it from getting worse if it wants to meet the SDGs, while pointing out that Nigeria can only achieve water security for every of its citizen through innovation, investment and collaboration, ensuring services are sustainable and well-managed.

According to reports about 70 per cent of Nigerians are reported to have access to a basic water services, more than half of these water sources are contaminated, while 73 per cent of the country’s population have access to a water source, only nine litres of water on average is available to a Nigerians daily.
At the current rate, the country will miss the SDG targets on people’s access to water, unless there is a strong commitment and appropriate action taken by all stakeholders experts have revealed.

Every March 22 is commemorated as World Water Day, to raise awareness on global water crisis.
The theme of World Water Day 2021 is ‘Valuing Water’.
The value of water is about much more than its price – water has enormous and complex value for our households, food, culture, health, education, economics and the integrity of our natural environment.

0 0
Happy
Happy
0 %
Sad
Sad
0 %
Excited
Excited
0 %
Sleppy
Sleppy
0 %
Angry
Angry
0 %
Surprise
Surprise
0 %

Average Rating

5 Star
0%
4 Star
0%
3 Star
0%
2 Star
0%
1 Star
0%

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Next Post

Donald Trump Plans To Float Social Media Platform

Former American President, Donald Trump is planning to return to Social Media through his own platform.Trump’s spokesperson, Jason Miller who revealed this said the former president would return to social media in two or three months with his own platform. According to Miller, Trump’s remergence on social media will be […]

Subscribe US Now

Free Shoutcast HostingRadio Stream Hosting