About 90 per cent of households in Nigeria consume contaminated water and other impure sub­stances, the Multiple Indica­tor Cluster Survey (MICS) has revealed.

Mrs. Maureen Zubie-Okolo, a monitoring and eEvaluation specialist with UNICEF, who made the disclosure in an inter­view with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said the water and sanitation situation in the country was worrisome.

She said although 64.1 per cent of Nigerians had access to improved drinking water sourc­es, North-East states were, however, lagging with 52.4 per cent, while South-West states top the chart with 87.3 per cent of its residents having access to improved water sources.

“About two out of every three households use improved wa­ter sources, while a little more than one-third use improved sanitation compared to 58.5 per cent and 31 per cent respec­tively in 2011.

According to the report, over­whelming majority represent­ing 90.8 per cent of households in Nigeria, drink water contam­inated by faeces and other im­pure substances like Ecoli.

Zubie-Okolo said there was need for more advocacy to all tiers of government to make policies and programmes that would increase access to im­proved water sources and sanitation.

She said it was a known fact that water-borne diseases, such as diarrhoea had been the leading cause of hospital admissions, especially among under-five children.

The UNICEF official said ac­cess to basic water and sanita­tion would promote wellbeing of citizens and reduce pre­ventable diseases and deaths among the populace.

According to her, the MICS report carried out in 2017 by the National Bureau of Statis­tics (NBS), in collaboration with UNICEF, shows the country’s progress and lapses in key areas of development, adding that the overall goal was to advocate for a change in policy formulation and implementation for the de­velopment of the nation.

Mrs. Elizabeth Ugoh told NAN that the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, was work­ingwith the Standards Organ­isation of Nigeria (SON) to en­force the National Standard for Drinking Water Quality.

Ugoh, a deputy director, Wa­ter Quality Control and San­itation in the ministry said, “the ministry is calling on all Nigerians drinking water from borehole and other sources to regularly test their water in laboratories across the country to reduce consuming unwhole­some water. We are also calling on borehole drillers to abide by the National Drilling Code of Practice.

According to her, six new laboratories are being con­structed in the six geo-political zones by the Federal Govern­ment to improve water quality and standard in the country.

She said that the six exist­ing laboratories were inad­equate due to the country’s large population.

It would be recalled that UNICEF had called on the me­dia to use data journalism to help highlight lapses in devel­opment indices and the overall goal of meeting the Sustain­able Development Goals by 2030. (NAN)

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