http://leadership.ng/opinions/editorial/513492/better-water-better-jobs



As customary since 1993, the world celebrated another Water Day recently. The theme was ‘Better Water, Better Jobs’. While it may mean little to many in this part of the globe, Nigeria was again missing in action as other countries reflected on the nexus between these global imperatives. It cannot be denied that almost half of the world’s workers – 1.5 billion people – work in water related sectors and nearly all jobs depend on water and those that ensure its safe delivery. Sadly, Nigeria ended at the base of the United Nations Decade for Water – 2005 to 2015. Despite her enormous water resources the country could not achieve the Millennium Development Goals on Water and Sanitation.

Many suburbs still do not have access to fresh water, as only 58 per cent of the populace is covered. It means about 87 million Nigerians rely on water scooped from filthy ponds, wells, rivers, lakes and in many privileged homes through boreholes that are privately dug. In many towns and villages, water vendors earn their livelihood scrounging water from sundry sources for sale to hapless citizens to use for their domestic consumption and industrial needs. In defiance of hazards associated with indiscriminate drilling of boreholes, the government is yet to live up to its responsibility on water supply.

With the number of people working at borehole sites, sachet water and pure water companies, it is self-evident that the workers are often not recognized or protected by basic labour rights. Our government needs to harness the expansiveness of knowledge age that sees water sector as highly conducive for job creation and create an enabling environment on how enough quantity and quality of water can change workers’ lives and livelihoods.

For instance, we see the nexus between job and energy as intrinsically linked and a potential job market. We also know that wastewater from domestic, commercial and industrial sectors can also be treated, using mechanical power driven by electricity. This increases the use of energy to treat wastewater. Industrial wastewater that carries hazardous chemicals may use higher energy input. Nevertheless, sewage and biomass can produce methane, a renewable energy resource to be converted into electricity or biogas. We see in this year’s theme couched in several possibilities for a government that ascended power on the mantra of change.

We need to join the rest of the developing world to accelerate research on how to maximise the harmonious relationship between water and jobs. Nigerian leaders should not slack in holding talks with professionals in the water sector through its numerous water boards, river basin authorities and other positive initiatives. Given its status as a universal solvent, water should be treated as a human right. The country’s National Water Supply Policy articulates this.

We propose that government should stand up to its responsibility and provide for special fund for the sector. Awareness of the inter-linkages between water and job is expedient, just as we must focus on the broad range of issues related to the nexus of water and jobs. Decision makers in the employment and the water sectors must integrate into the global plan on the water-job synergy to achieve greater economic and social impacts. If not, we will be charting the pathway to hunger since food security relies on water.