The Water that kills   ! !! !!!

The recent assertion by World Bank that “1 in 7 people lacks access to clean water” on its website (.http://www.worldbank.org/ida/theme-climate.html?cid=EXT_FBWB_D_EXT) drives home the fact that the quest to achieve a sustainable water utilization and availability is still a global challenge, a goal far from being reached. 

Plate 1: Water that kills (Source: World Bank)

A sustainable water utilization and availability in every respect will bridge the gap between the planet, the people, their prosperity and their well-being. Breathtakingly, from World Bank it was stated that “Even though two-thirds of the earth is covered with water, only one percent is drinkable” this reveals that globally, water is available but not potable. This also reinforces the challenges of water quality. The report further claimed that “Every day, more than one billion people struggle to find water—water that will likely make them sick”. This in addendum raised another eyebrow about the quality of water and its accessibility. Struggling to find water will entail the competitions for water especially in areas with water shortages or zones with multiple demands over same water source. It will also involve the stress of purifying dirty water as well as the burden of carrying or transporting water through long distances. These assertions are axiomatic to suffering in the mist of plenty.

Plate 2: the burden of transporting water (Source: Curt Carnemark/The World Bank)

Case study 

A decent case of people fulfilling these proclamations by World Bank are the good people of Busugi village in Niger state, Nigeria. They Labour to find water during the dry season when the only functioning borehole in the village would have dried up as a result of aquifer dehydration and stream drying. The streams become dried as a consequence of high evaporation rate during the dry season turning the stream routes to footpaths.

Fig 1: Streams around Busugi that dries up during dry season (Source: Authors via Map source for Nigeria).

The dryness of water bearing rocks and small streams were infrequent in times past but now they are recurrently hastened up by climate change, which makes the villagers revert to a locally constructed earthen pond that is also being threatened by climate change. The pond is located North-West of the village serving multiple purposes to the villagers and others that depend on it, such as the Fulani cattle herdsmen, hunters, potters and farmers. Competitions among users during the dry season usually result in conflicts and most observably the gross contamination of the dam by the users. Sadly, Women and children travel an average distant of 1.04km to fetch water from this pond for domestic use. 

Fig 2: Caption showing the location of earthen pond and the village (Source: Authors via Google Earth)

Fig 3: Caption showing the average distant travelled by women and children to collect water (Source: Authors via Google Earth).

The water from the earthen pond is a polite model of water that could cause various ailments, and perfect example of water that kills. 

 Plate 3: showing sample collected from earthen dam (Source: Authors).

How best can we help the good people of Busugi and many more people that depend on water that kills?.... Remember:

We are facing a global water crisis:* 18% of the world’s population lack access to safe drinking water, and 42% lack access to basic sanitation. More than 2.2 million people die each year from diseases associated with these conditions. As water scarcity grows, so will these numbers. By 2025, it is estimated that two thirds of the world’s population will live in areas facing moderate to severe water stress.
 http://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/factsheet.html

Study was done on May 11, 2013 by Adenle Ademola and other WASCAL scholars under the aegis of West Africa Science Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land use (ZEF) Bonn Germany /(FUT, Minna).

Authors: Adenle Ademola and Akpeokhai Agatha (CROG).