Water is vital to the earth and is needed for the survival of every creature on the planet.
The United Nations declared March 22nd of every year, World Water Day to celebrate clean water and to create awareness about the plight of 2.2 billion people living without access to clean and safe water. The theme for this year’s World Water Day is ‘Valuing Water’.
The United Nations did not declare this day just for the celebration, but to tackle the global crisis and to achieve sustainable goal ‘6’ which is: Water and sanitation for all by 2030, and as stakeholders we are all to swing into action to understand the inestimable value of water so as to safeguard this resources for the benefit of everyone.
Lack of clean and safe water can create a lot of havoc in our lives because, according to the UN, over 800 children under age five die daily from diarrhoea caused by dirty water.
Also, the impact of water on the economy is immense as research has shown that three out of four jobs are water- dependent and its shortage or lack may limit economic growth.
It is important for government at all levels to take the issue of water serious because its value is more important than its price and the inability to provide water to the citizens may lead to the use of contaminated water and poor sanitary condition which results in an increase in vulnerability to water-borne diseases.
In developing countries like Nigeria, access to water in rural communities is crucial to good health as sufficient access to uncontaminated water will promote good health and reduce diseases to the barest minimum.
With no doubt, it has become clear that access to clean and drinkable water is one of the key elements that facilitate progress in rural communities.
We all are stakeholders when it comes to the issue of water as we all know that water is life. We should therefore rise to the responsibility of providing water for our communities as the government cannot do it alone. Private investors should try to provide water to their host communities as part of their social responsibility.
If we really want to have a disease-free nation, we all should take the issue of water seriously as there can be no proper sanitation without water because sanitation and water walk hand in hand.
Nosimot Soneye wrote from Abeokuta
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