Quest for potable water

Water is essential for life, without it there would be no life on this planet. A large proportion of the earth is covered by water, about 71% to be precise out of which 96.5% is ocean water. The remainder consist of sources of water such as lakes, rivers, streams, water vapour, soil water, aquifers, glaciers and icecaps. As a matter of fact only only 3.5% is fresh water out of which just 1% is available for use, though not all is potable. What then is potable water?

Potable water simply means drinking water or water that is suitable for drinking or cooking- Wikipedia.

The amount of water required varies from different regions of the world to another. Typically, countries in temperate regions consume less than countries in equitorial regions or hot climate. It is estimated that access to potable water ranges from 40% to 80% in sub-saharan Africa of the population with more people lacking access in rural areas.Ref 1

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My experience as regards potable water in my country

This is not a research but it is based on my account during a field posting while pursuing a degree couple of years back. As part of the requirement for obtaining this degree we were divided into teams and sent to different rural areas. In Nigeria we have three tiers of government, these are:

.Federal government which basically formulates policies for different sectors of the economy: In this case I am referring to policies relating to potable water supply which is under the health sector and quite frankly policy formulation is not the issue but implementation of these policies.

.State government which basically work on implementation of these policies in urban areas and monitors activities in rural areas within their territory.

.Local government is the first point of call to the masses and work on implementation of policies in the rural areas.

So we were posted to Odunade-Aiyekale community which is along Jebba road in Oloru district of Moro Local government in Kwara state. It is basically two settlements on either side of the expressway linking the Southern part of Nigeria with the Northern part. We were required to meet with the leaders of the communities to determine the needs of the community. We also made our own observations as to what the community needs.

Top of the list of what the community needed was potable water. To be honest, there is a borehole in Aiyekale which is to the right of the express way when going up north towards Bode-Saadu which is the local government headquarters. The fact still remains folks on the Odunade side will have to cross the expressway with potable water on their heads which has resulted in a number of lives being lost due to being run over by trucks, cars moving at high velocity. The leaders on the left side of the expressway stated categorically they want a borehole so they would not have to cross the expressway.

Leaders in Aiyekale however felt they were the same community and top of their list of needs was having ventilated pit latrine. Of course we observed both settlements were plagued with Malaria, had issues bordering family planning, sanitation and of course the elementary school situated in Aiyekale was in need of a "makeover". We were able to tackle all of these successfully as we held various health talk, sensitisation and distribution of antimalarial drugs, nets and renovation of furnitures in the school.

However one important issue was still lingering which is the issue of potable water in Odunade. Members of the team proceeded to the local government headquarters to meet with our liaison officer or the Head of department primary health care. Our liaison officer I must confess is a friendly man in his late forties and was willing to help from my observation. But on this particular issue he stated unequivocally that there would be no borehole on the other side of the expressway, his reason being that boreholes drilling were done at ward level and that there are other communities that do not have improved water supply within their vicinity albeit having potable water just across the road.

We made a case that it was no ordinary road but an expressway whereby lives of settlers were at risk while crossing to get potable water. He said nothing could be done at the moment as it is the same ward and essentially the same settlement. He stated that the best we could do is to dig a well. In our next meeting with the aggrieved leaders we explained the outcome of our meeting with the liaison officer, they seem not to be surprised as we later realised we were not the first team to visit the locality. The previous team dug a well without success as the water table is reputed to be very low, we could not actually call it a well as it was one big hole without water which is actually hazardous to the community.

The aggrieved settlers stated categorically that they wouldn't want another hazardous hole as we would not find water if we made attempt at digging a well. The team rallied round to see if we could find a sponsor for the borehole all to no avail as it seems politics of health was at play. We made several visit to the headquarters to see the local government chairman but each time we were told he was not on seat. We also had time constraint as we were to make reports of our activities back at the University alongside a presentation with community leaders, professors and students in attendance. We opted for a well at the last minute when we could not pull through with a borehole.

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We were able to persuade the leaders that we have tried our best as regards the borehole without success. They acknowledged our efforts and seemed to understand we were helpless. We contracted an artisan whom we were told was among the best, we explained our situation to him and he gave us assurance that we would find water in no time. He got down to work with his apprentice immediately. He dug and dug but no water; each time he reassures us we are close to 'discovering' water, we were met with disappointments after disappointments. At a point it felt we were into crude oil exploration, this hole reached depths I have never seen of a well anywhere else and still no water. Someone quipped probably some transcedental powers might be at play as there was no plausible reason why there would be no water at such depth.

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We kept faith and told the artisan to keep digging, all this while we had eclipsed the depth of the previous hole. I also noticed the enthusiasm in our artisan is all but gone, I have to give credit to him though as he was determined to succeed. He went as far as contacting a man whom I suspect to be a spiritualist, after which he dug some more before finally accepting defeat. He came to us and said emphatically that the inhabitants do not want the well. I'll have to admit the depth was almost twice the depth of the well at home. Probably the water table was extremely low or other forces were at play, either way we left a hole deeper than the previous one and had to call for it to be filled up.

We carried the necessary authorities along with each development which helped us in scaling through our reports and presentation successfully. The authorities agreed we had put in our best considering the time constraint and effort but our inability to find water nevertheless cast a shadow on our efforts. Each time I pass through that axis that feeling of being helpless and sad always envelope me. I will summon the courage to stop by someday when I feel I am in a position to drill a borehole for the community if that has not been done already.

beautiful as they were.

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