The Way Forward
It has clearly been established that, pollution of domestic water is an ongoing problem in most
Nigerian communities, especially the government-ignored villages. The tragedy is seriously crippling
human development, proper identification of preventive and control measures would be very useful.
The key ways forward in this respect are the proper education of local people on the important of water
sanitation and good waste disposal methods, establishment of water treatment plants and good
regulatory strategies. Adequate budgetary funding is therefore necessary. In the early democratic days
(1946-1956), up to 15.1% of the national budget is expended on water supply by the colonial
administration. With the exception of 1994, when 14.9 % was allocated, the percentage expenditure
fell drastically (Table 2). Although there are signs of improvement under the current Millennium
Development Goals (MDG), low financing of water sector, in a country where 69 and 103 million
people (more than half of the population) lack safe drinking water and adequate sanitation facilities
respectively, is a great mistake with crippling consequences for human development and economic
growth.
Domestic Water Pollution among Local Communities in Nigeria
Oil pollution problems could be successfully addressed by ensuring that corruption-free “safety
and operability procedures” are fully implemented by all oil stakeholders, lessons and program
development options from United Kingdom (UK) offshore and onshore safety strategy would be very
useful. Companies operating offshore are the major water polluters; they should therefore be forced to
be practicing safety procedures similar to those in UK, where “safety case” and Health and Safety
Executive (HSE) policies are efficiently applied. Where oil spill has already taken place, the best
management and recovery options to ensure that reasonable risk assessment is carried out by experts
and emergency procedures, involving the use of approved international techniques and equipments
should be adopted.
Lack of efficient law-enforcement instrument has significantly resulted to waste disposal into
fresh waterways by sellers of different food and cosmetics in our markets. This could be fully
addressed by improving awareness and ensuring total compliance with the applied laws and practices.
Prosecution of defaulters would be very important here.
As the current agricultural and environmental policies are either deficient on the laws governing
the disposal of agricultural wastes by farmers or lack good enforcement mechanisms, the three tiers of
government in the country should ensure that “effective agricultural waste disposal methods are
promulgated”. Farmer education through extension services and attractive media forums are required.
Judicial measures could similarly be employed in certain complex cases. Fishers that adopt
chemicalised-fishing system, polluting rivers and lakes, should be educated, treated with warm
cautions and legal actions for defaulting.
Regarding the diseases infection issues, adequate funding and proper health education in all
communities are necessary. The current state of the system, involving very few “Community Health
Extension Workers (CHEW)” per locality should be fully funded and enhanced by ensuring that, many
youths enrolled into community health studies. This could be achieved by standardising Schools of
Health Technologies, Nursing and Universities at large. A decision by UNICEF and many nongovernmental organisations gave emphasis also to improved water and environmental sanitation
program.
For example, diarrhoea infection, the most childhood killer disease in Nigeria, can be
successfully reduced by 50% if water quality is improved. Coupling sanitation (proper disposal of
human and animal faeces) with health education, improved water quality measures, enhanced hygiene
techniques and adequate funding the disease could be a history.
Conclusively, none of the aforementioned measures could yield any positive result, except the
serious corruption problem in the country is addressed with full implementation, involving not only the
poor but the leaders, wealthy and their associates (i.e. collective approach).