Akwa Ibom marks World Water Day, seeks end to open defecation

Akwa Ibom has marked this year’s World Water Day with an appeal for an end to open defecation and so as to check water borne diseases.

An estimated 1.8 billion people may be drinking water contaminated by e-coli – meaning there is faecal material in their water, even from some improved sources, according to experts.

Speaking at the ceremony,  Effiong Essien, General Manager, Akwa Ibom State Rural Water and Sanitation Agency highlighted the need for good water supply for good and healthy living especially among the children adding that the challenge of getting enough quality and quantity of water that positively affects lives of families, households, communities and societies at large has been daunting.

 He stated that the end to open defecation would reduce the incidences of many water diseases including dysentery diarrhoea. “The growing impact of climate change and resultant flooding washes excreta from open defecation to water sources thereby rendering them unfit for drinking” he satated.

 Essien who  suggested that “good sanitation and personal hygiene by all should be indices for good water quality delivery at households, public places and places of work added that ownership and community partnership should be encouraged to avoid abandoning good  water quality sources.

 “Collaboration of all sectors and key players in the water supply programmes should be adopted as well as Integrated Water Resources Management approach to ensure water safety from upstream to downstream,’’ he said.

 In a message sent to mark the event,  UNICEF  said the challenge facing the world when it comes to clean water is enormous.

 Sanjay Wijeserkera, head of UNICEF’s global water, sanitation and hygiene programmes noted that

 “With the new Sustainable Development Goals calling for ‘safe’ water for everyone, we’re not starting from where the MDGs left off; it is a whole new ball game.”

 The UN body identified poor sanitation as one of the principal contributors to faecal contamination of water adding   that 2.4 billion  people globally  lack proper toilets and just under 1 billion of them defecate in the open.

“This means faeces can be so pervasive in many countries and communities that even some improved water sources become contaminated,’’ it said.

 On safety concerns arising from climate change, it noted that “when water becomes scarce during droughts, populations resort to unsafe surface water. At the other end of the scale, floods damage water and sewage treatment facilities, and spread faeces around, very often leading to an increase in water-borne diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea.”

According to UNICEF, most vulnerable are the nearly 160 million children under 5 years old globally who live in areas at high risk of drought. Around half a billion live in flood zones. Most of them live in sub-Saharan .

 The event which had as its theme “Water and Jobs” was organised in conjunction with UNICEF, the European and the Akwa Ibom State Government.