Water! As many would say, is Life. But this ideology is no gainsaying because water virtually forms intricate part of our everyday living. There is hardly any processes (biological, medical, chemical, agriculture, etc), activities that humanity carries out on earth without the involvement of water. I wonder what will be the fate of living creatures if water ceases from the earth. The earth as whole and everything that makes up the earth, water amasses over 70% of its volume. It means for fact “water has no enemy”. I guess we could assume that the life cycle and the water cycle are one.
Man has been privileged with the responsibility of replenishing the Earth, subduing it, and making it a better place. But in this part of our world (Africa, Nigeria), it is like we are living in the opposite. With the vast volume of water on the Earth surface, only 3% of earth’s surface water are fresh water. A Slovakian Proverb say, ‘Pure Water is the world’s first and foremost medicine’. One of the key to a good healthy life and longevity is assess and usage of clean fresh water. Here in Nigeria, the rate at which water pollution is on the rise is not farfetched. Today many of the epidemic that has and is troubling the lives and health of the Nigerians are caused mainly by exposure to bad or unclean water.
Cholera for example, has claimed the lives of scores of thousands of Nigerians since its first breakout in 1991 which according to WHO statistics, 7,654 people died in that year (1991).
Also, statistics has shown that more than 3.4 million people die each year from water, poor sanitation and bad hygiene. Nearly 99% of this cases occur in the third world countries. Sources also confirm that about 1.5 million people die of Diarrhoea every year, which is caused by drinking contaminated water, with about 1.4 million of these death involving children. Other diseases such as Hepatitis, Typhoid fever, Dysentery, Polio, Fluorosis, Guinea Worm, Malaria et al.
The causes of our contaminated water are easily to be identified, though they are numerous couple with the fact that our Government doesn't have any structure programme to curb this menace wherewith many industries could dispose their industrial waste any how/where they like with no form of restriction. Even the commoners’ falls short. No one is checked on how he dumps his/her refuse. Some of other major of water contaminant such as; oil spills, pesticide and fertilizers sewage and waste water etc. affects the soil causing distortion in agricultural produce; some are even washed of during the rainy season to large water bodies killing sea animals. Places like the Niger Delta where many places have been hit by oil spillage, bringing to a halt so many means of livelihood.
Even groundwater doesn’t seem all that exempted because many of this contaminant infiltrate into the water table as leachates. It’s also been discovered that some shallow groundwater are being affected by leachates from abattoirs sites in Ibadan area.The dangers water pollution pose to our society is alarming. Proper hygiene and cleaniness is key.
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