1.8bn use faeces-contaminated water – UNICEF

By Raphael Ede
Enugu

A specialist in Water, Sanitation and Health (WASH), Amose Kudzala, yesterday disclosed that over one billion people, globally, use water contaminated with faeces “because they have no access to clean drinking water, greater percentage of this people are Africans.”
Kudzala, who is also the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Chief of Field, Enugu, made this known at the 2017 zonal Media Breakfast on World Water Day celebration in Enugu.

He noted that access to clean water and sanitation was prerequisite for healthy human living that has direct impact on the well-being of the people all over the world.
Speaking on this year’s theme: “Why Waste Water”, the Managing Director of Enugu state Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency, Dr. Frank Okenwa Omeje, noted that globally, vast majority of all the waste water from homes, cities, industries and Agricultural flow back to nature untreated or re-used, thereby polluting it for drinking and other uses.

Omeje said that this year’s World Water Day was about reducing and re-using waste water, pointing out that it was generally geared towards tackling the global water crisis.
“Today, there are over 66.3 million people living without a safe water supply close to their homes, spending countless hours queuing or trekking long distances for sources and coping with the health impacts of using contaminated water,” he lamented.

To tackle this dearth of usable water, the ENRUWASSA boss said that his organisation was preoccupied with ensuring that all rural communities are provided with portable water.
He noted that with more funds provided his organisation, they would make sure that water problems are taken care of.
Explaining the reason for organising the media breakfast in commemoration of the day, the UNICEF Communication Officer, Ijeoma Onuoha-Ogwe, said that as partners in progress, the media needed accurate and update information on the activities of UNICEF in order to champion advocacy for improved safe water.

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