Impact Water, a non-governmental organization in collaboration with the Niger state government has commenced installation Aquatabs Water Purification systems in 1, 365 primary and secondary schools across the state.
Mr Zacchaeus Akinyemi, Country Director, Impact Water Nigeria said at the flag off of the event in Minna that initiative was aimed at reducing the incidences of water borne diseases such as cholera and typhoid as a result of contamination of water sources.
He said the water treatment system included the distribution of 100 litre water containers with taps and the Aquatabs water treatment tablets enough to last the school for about two academic sessions to the benefting 1339 schools.
The Country Director added that the initiative would also include the installation of Aquatabs Flo water devices in 26 schools across the state.
“Each benefiting school is to be provided with users guidelines and their staff will be trained on the treatment and maintenance procedures of both devices.
“For turbid water, the schools will be trained on how to filter the water with a clean cloth before administering the Aquatabs water treatment tablet while a water filter is provided with every Aquatabs Flo installation,” he explained.
According to him, a recent publication revealed that Aquatabs Flo study shows reduced World Health Organization (WHO) defined diarrhea in children by over 25 percent.
“With the implementation of this project in Niger State public schools, incidences of water borne diseases is expected to reduce significantly especially among the school children,” he noted.
He said Impact Water Nigeria’s point of use water treatment systems have been installed in over 15,000 schools in 17 states of Nigeria reaching over five million students.
Flagging off the initiative, the State Commissioner for Education, Hajiya Hannatu Jibrin Salihu expressed the state government’s commitment to ensuring increased access to safe water especially among children in the state, adding that the administration would continue to explore strategic partnership with key stakeholders to achieve this goal.
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