By Temitope Musowo
According to World Health
Organization (WHO), safe water means consistent access to and adequate supply
of clean water suitable for drinking, bathing, cooking and cleaning. This must
be from a source less than 1kilometer (62miles) away and at least 20 litres
(5.28 gallons) per person per day.
Going by the above definition, safe
water is out of reach of most people living in the rural communities,
particularly in Nigeria.
Talking about importance of water,
the late afro-music legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti described water as an indispensable
essential of life that has no enemy.
One of the most crucial natural
resources which can make a meaningful contribution to the socio-economic
development of rural communities is water. It is widely used for various
reasons or purposes ranging from household chores to agricultural purposes.
However, to most rural dwellers, safe
water is a luxury meant for the people in the cities, but sadly enough, despite
the rate of rural-urban migration in recent time, more than half population of
the people in sub-Saharan Africa still live in rural communities where living
standard is acutely poor and primitive.
Nigeria as a case study
This is particularly correct about
Nigeria as a county, in the sense that, apart from the 36 state headquarters in
Nigeria, Abuja the federal capital, and probably the 774 Local Government headquarters,
life in other parts which formed the larger percentage of the entire country is
characterized with pervasive rural poverty.
So worrisome enough, the government seem
not to be in touch with this harsh reality.
These people are completely cut off from governance.
There is hardly government presence
in these rural communities, perhaps the only time they are remembered is during
electioneering campaign, after that, they cease to exist in government
developmental agenda.
Pervasive rural poverty
The ordeal of the rural communities
sound painfully familiar to me as I was born in such environment, majority of
the villages in Nigeria are where people still trek several miles to the stream,
which is their major source of water, places where there is no communication at all,
they are completely cut off from the national grid.
These communities are where children
trek some distance to school every morning and would get completely fagged off
and too tired to listen to teachers in class, worst still, many of them would
still have to walk several kilometres after school hours to meet their parents
on the farm, where they would have their lunch.
In this day and age, these people have not
advanced beyond the use of firewood for their cooking, like in the Stone Age, the
use of grinding stone to grind pepper is still a common practice among them. There
is just no sophistry to dress up this naked fact, this is the real situation in
our rural communities.
Politics apart, this is still the
Nigeria of 21st century, and I dare anyone who sees Nigeria in the
light of Lagos, Abuja, Port- Harcourt and other cities to follow me on a rural excursion
to see the real Nigeria. And the question
is, what percentage of the entire country call Nigeria are these urban centres?
Water scarcity and the Mamu community example
The condition of people of Mamu
community best describe this sorry state of rural life, Mamu, a community in Ijebu-North Local
Government Area of Ogun State, located between the boundary of Oyo and Ogun,
less than 20 kilometres to Ago-Iwoye ,with an average population of 3000 inhabitants.
People of this community are
predominantly peasant farmers and petty traders, Mamu is notable for its market
which is a point of convergence for traders across Ogun state and beyond, every
five days, a good chunk of the local government revenue comes from this market,
yet, the community has not been fortunate to enjoy government attention, much
of the amenities that make life worth living in this century still elude them.
Visiting the village, in this day and
age, as important as water is to human existence, the first observation anyone would make is water scarcity, more
vulnerable are the children and women who are seen carrying buckets in search
of water to meet daily household needs.
A major cause of water scarcity in Mamu
is the government’s failure to redress the colonial imbalances which resulted
in rural areas deliberately being side lined as far as water development
projects are concerned. The centralisation of power since independence has
resulted in bias towards improvement of water availability in urban areas and
commercial farms at the expense of rural areas.
Major sources of
water in Mamu community
Apart
from one or two unprotected wells dug by people for provision of water for their
households, the community major source of water are streams and a small river,
quite unfortunate, most of these water sources are far from being clean and unsafe for
domestic use, many of the streams visited takes their sources from another
stream somewhere that flows down to form another body of water somewhere.
Although, there are indications that efforts have been made in the past
by government to provide water for the community through borehole, even pipe-
borne- water, as relics of broken plastic pipes, rusted tanks and water points
were found, yet, scarcity of water remain the current reality of the community.
Tracing the sources of these streams, findings showed one stream called Odo-
Idiarika which flows down to form another body of water called Odo-Apata,
where people do all manner of washing and the dirty water from washing flows
back into the stream, which is not far from another body of water called Odo-Yemoja,
that flows down to Odo-Epa, and from there to Odo-Iyaonirobo, all these streams
are along the same area.Mrs Tumininun nee Osikoya from Yemoja river
According to a man called Kunle Alagaode, who lives along the
road to a popular river, called Odo-Idiarika, he explained the
community's effort in ensuring cleanliness and water availability all year
round, he said, " Odo-Idiarika
is a major river in this town, people come from even the extreme part of the
community to Idiarika , ( the river is named after the street) to come and
fetch water, Oloritun (head of the street) is always in charge of the river.
A water bearer fetching from one of the streams
During the raining season, the rules guiding the river are a bit
relaxed, but during the dry season when most streams must have dried up, all
attention shift to Odo-Idiarika, but Oloritun will open the river only
around 6am, close it by 12 noon and only reopen it around 4 pm again and close
it at 7 pm," .
When asked what is used to close a body of water opened and not fenced, he
said they would tie palm fronts round the river and nobody dare go there after
this is done.
Ensuring
cleanliness of the water
As regard cleanliness, he said part of the regulations are that; you put
off your slippers/shoes some distance from the river, you do not come to the
river with chewing stick or chewing gum in your mouth, you are not allowed to
deep your bucket into the river to fetch water, you must use a small clean bowl
to fetch into your bucket, nobody is allowed to do any form of washing around
the river, if you brought a rag to carry your bucket, you do not take the rag
close to the river, you cannot place your legs on the pavement built at the
heart of the river, these among other are the rule to ensure cleanliness
according to Mr Kunle.
Rules enforcement
Talking of enforcement of these rules, he said, the Oloritun and other elders
on the street are always by the river to enforce disciplines, if you flout any
of these rules, some people's bucket would be seized, some will be beaten with
cane, some would have their bucket broken and asked not to come to the river
again if they have been found to be impervious to correction.
When we visited the river, things have changed as people were seen
flouting those rules, but Mr Kunle explained, "the reason is that there is
no one to keep people in check anymore, most of those elders are now dead, others
are too old to do all that now, I'm the one (Mr Kunle) who when I see people
flouting those rules sometimes rebuke them, but what much can I do?.
Moreover, things have changed now, the kind of respect we accorded
elders then no longer exist, more so, we easily believed those myths then, for
instance, we were told that if you catch fish from this river and boil the fish
from now till tomorrow it will remain raw, if you do anything untoward to the
river, the goddess of water will be annoyed with you, all those myths are today
being questioned by the younger generation’’, he lamented.
Vulnerability of
women and children
In all these, children and women are always more vulnerable, they are at
the centre of it all, grappling with the direct impact of this life bellow
common standard of living.
A little survey conducted among
the pupils in primary 5 and 6 of Wesley Primary School, Ipinle, Mamu
revealed the negative toll this is having on their education, health and
general wellbeing, many of who perpetually come late to school because they
have to fetch water before coming to school in the morning, most times missing
out on the first 2 periods in the morning, ‘’ I have to fetch water to fill at
least 3 drums every morning before coming to school’’, one of the pupils said,
when asked what they use that volume of water for everyday, he said ,’’we use
it for our grinding machine and other commercial use’’.
Another one among the children confessed that sometime she may not take
her bath before coming to school if there is no water at home, some of the
pupils also owned up to the fact that they pile up their dirty clothes for
weeks to save water.
When they
were asked if anyone of them have been infected with water borne disease before
due to contaminated water, majority of them confirmed this.
More
worrisome is the fact that many of these pupils are sent out by their teachers
to look for water for the school use during school hours and for the teacher’s
domestic use after the school hours.
The effect on their socio-economic lives
Water and
poverty are inextricably linked. Lack of safe water and poverty are mutually
reinforcing, access to consistent sources of clean water is crucial to poverty
reduction. All businesses rely to some
extent on consistent access to safe water and sanitation. Water is essential
for growing and processing raw goods for food and other materials. Access to water in the right proportion and close to
dwellings will have impact on the income and livelihood of the community.
Women bear the heaviest burden when there is no
safe water and sanitation. In most places that lack these resources, women and
children are responsible for retrieving water for their families, often
spending several hours each day travelling and waiting at a water point. This often
puts them at the risk of assault and injury.
Some women who spoke with us lamented the impact of
water scarcity on their businesses. According to Mrs Akomolafe, who
prepares corn pap for sale, she complained about how much she spends on buying
water from water bearers who sell water in gallons, ‘’you know the process of
preparing pap involves a lot of water, you soak the corn in water for some
days, you wash before grinding it and sieving it too you will need water not to
talk of the final process of turning it on fire which also involves water, we
buy 200-litres gallon of water for hundred naira, how much gain are we making?.
The stories of other women working in the local oil mill were not different as
they equally lamented the cost of getting water to do their work.
Effect on their Health
WHO report has it that Over 40 billion productive
hours is lost each year to fetching water in sub-Saharan Africa. About
half of the developing world’s hospital beds are occupied by people with water-
related illness.
The health of the community members is largely dependent on water and
sanitation, improved water and sanitation would result to reduction in cases of
diarrhoea and other water-borne diseases.
Communities
are vulnerable to health and sanitation risks due to the unavailability of
clean water.
Mrs Akomolafe wrapping her pap with leaves
There
is a high risk of communities being exposed to water borne diseases, this cannot
but happen in a community where people scoop water from holes in dried-out
rivers, unprotected wells, and rainwater ponds, as in Mamu community where
water is susceptible to contamination, this will definitely lead to diseases
and ailments.
A
visit to the only private Maternity home in the community ( Marian
Maternity Home, Idi-Arika, Mamu) and a Primary Health Centre situated
in an area called Ipinle in the
community lend credence to this fact, many patients were seen receiving
treatment from water related ailments.
Effect on
children’s Education
Studies have shown that in the world’s
poorest countries millions of children are unable to attend schools due to
household chores and responsibilities for collecting water, and health related
problem caused by unclean water also cause student absenteeism.
According to a UNICEF report, an
estimated 443 million school days are lost each year from water-related
illness. In many cases, children are too sick with diarrhea and other
water-borne diseases like typhoid, cholera, or dysentery to go to school or
must care for sick family members instead of going to class.
The response from the pupils of
Wesley Pry School who were interviewed as sample frame corroborate the above
fact, this is equally true of the pupils in the two other primary schools in
the community namely; St Peter Anglican Primary School, St Charles Catholic
Primary School Mamu.
Agricultulture
Farming
productivity has declined over the years in Mamu due to water scarcity. Many of
the people in this village are subsistence farmers who only grow crops for the
benefit of their families. This has had
a detrimental effect on the livelihoods of majority of the households who do
not have other source of income apart from farming. These are the words of
lamentation coming from many farmers that were interviewed in the community.
Government failure to provide
water for the community
After the
demise of the Rtd. Major Jimoh Onawaye, the late Baale of Mamu, who passed on some years back, Mr Adewale Miliki, a
retired headmaster has been holding sway as the head of the community.
Mr
Adewale has this to say about the neglect and abandonment being suffered by
this community, ‘’Mamu is has been suffering neglect in the hand of successive
governments of Ogun State for years, reason being that everything that is
supposed to come here is always being hijacked by Ago-Iwoye, because Mamu is
seen as a village under Ago-Iwoye, meanwhile, this town generate more IGR than most towns in Ogun state because there is
no where within the state where they don’t
come and do business in Mamu market, apart from the market, this town
produces more cocoa and cola nut more than most towns in Ogun state, it was
this huge production of cocoa that led Queen Elizabeth to visit Mamu when she
visited Nigeria in 1956.
Even
politically we are always short-changed here, instead of appointing a
councillorship candidate from Mamu, they will go and appoint from Ago-Iwoye,
meanwhile, majority of the votes would come from here, Only God will remember
us in this community, we have been neglected for long’’, he lamented.
As regard the issue of water, he
said, ‘’during the time of former governor Olusegun Oshoba he tried to give us
pipe-born water but I am not sure it worked for a month when everything packed
up, after that, other government also
The community head,Mr Adewale Miliki
tried but to no avail, you can
see the water tank by the present House
of Rep member but these cannot even serve one quarter of the town, how many
litre is the tank you see. May god help us in Mamu my son’’, Mr Adewale
concluded.
It remain to be seen if the
government of Ogun State will open the book of remembrance concerning Mamu
community soon, however, government attention may continue to elude them in
this community given the fact that they don’t really have a substantive
community head who can be their mouth piece for now as comments from some members
of the community shows Mr Adewale Miliki is a self appointed leader who is not
even recognised as the community head in some quarters.
