Buhari’s State Of Emergency On Sanitation: A Eulogy To Aregbe

Do you see goats, sheep and cows roaming about our streets?  Do you see “free range” poultry straying around in nooks?  Do you see children and adults out-shinning one another on dung-hills in open defecation, and inadvertently, displaying their ‘weapons of mass destruction’ in public pornography?  Do you know that this attitude kills us by instalment and lowers our life-spans below the current average of 52 years?  Have you heard the news?  Are you aware that UNICEF announced that Nigeria loses N455bn annually to poor sanitation, a budget that is greater than the annual allocations to education and health?  This is a time of emergency to reverse the trend. Why? Come along, please.  Kofi  Annan, ( 2001) cuts in:

“Fierce competition for fresh water may well become a source of conflict and wars in the future,”

Do you know that water is very important to grow and reproduce?  Are you aware that only 3 per cent of the Earth’s water is fresh and 97 per cent is salty?  Do you know that over two thirds of this is frozen in glaciers with the remaining unfrozen freshwater found mainly as groundwater, with only a small fraction on ground or in the air? Do you know that water crises had fueled wars in some civilizations?  Do you know  ‘water war hypothesis’? Come along.

Do you know that between 2500 and 2350 BC the Sumerian states of Lagash and Umma in ancient civilizations fought  brutal wars over water deficit?  Do you know that war researches had shown that some trans-boundary rivers such as the Indus, Jordan, Nile, Rivers Niger and Benue and water bodies like Lakes Chad and Victoria are focal points for water-related disputes? Are you aware that the State of Israel once bombed Syria for  attempting to divert the Jordan’s headwaters?  Are you aware of incessant military threats by Egypt against any country attempting to build dams in the upstream waters of the Nile?  Do you know that water stress continues to exacerbate conflicts and political tensions in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and Chad, including the herdsmen and Boko Haram’s insurgencies? Do you know that accounted for Social Development to include full  access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2030?  Do you know that sustainable management of water resources poses enormous challenges in many parts of the world?  Yes!  Do you know that access to clean water and sanitation is key to civilization of all human societies?  Are you aware that in 1854, a cholera outbreak in London’s Soho district was identified as originating from contaminated water from the Broad Street pump in London and nearly wiped out the population of the entire city?  Are you aware that in 1980 in Nigeria, cholera outbreak killed many intending pilgrims to Mecca for drinking contaminated water in their Haj Camps?

Do you know that in the same year 1980, an out-break of hepatitis occurred in Pennsylvania, in the United States due to the consumption of water from a feaces-contaminated well?  Do you know that in 1993, there was an outbreak of typhoid fever in the State of Israel which was associated with the contaminated municipal water supply?  Do you know that in year 2000, there was a gastro-enteritis outbreak in Finland that was brought by a non-chlorinated community water supply?  Do you know that in the same year 2000, an E. Coli outbreak occurred in Ontario, Canada due to drinking contaminated water? Do you know that in 2007, contaminated drinking water was pin-pointed as the cause of an outbreak of gastro-enteritis in Denmark?  Can you see now that the challenge is not a race but a marathon? Do you know that the entire humanity is passing through water stress? What is water stress?  Come along.

According to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, water stress is simply a situation where there is not enough water for all uses.   In 2018, the world population has hit 7 billion and the UN estimates that by 2050 there will be an additional 3.5 billion people with most of them likely to suffer water stress. The World Bank warns that access to water for producing food will be a challenge in the future.  The forecast of Boutrous Ghali resonates:  “The next war in the Middle East will be fought over water, not politics”

Hurray! Are you aware that President Buhari on Thursday 8th November, 2018 declared ‘a state of emergency’ on water supply, sanitation and hygiene sector, a declaration long over-do?  Can you recall the swiftness of Ogbeni  Aregbesola when he declared State of Emergency Sanitation in 2010 as soon as he took the mantle of leadership of our State?  Were you once told officially that Nigeria did not meet the MDG targets for water supply and sanitation in 2015? Do you know that the Federal Executive Council in April this year urged Mr President to declare ‘a state of emergency’  on water and sanitation sector? Do you know that we must meet the SDG targets for WASH by 2030?  Yes!

Are you aware that access to piped water services in Nigeria which was 32 per cent in 1990 has declined to 7 per cent in 2015 and access to improved sanitation has also decreased from 38 per cent in 1990 to 29 per cent in 2015?  Do you know that Nigeria  now ranks second in the global rating on open defecation as about 25 per cent of our population are practising open defecation? Do you know that Water, Sanitation and Hygiene services at the rural areas are unsustainable as 46 per cent of all water schemes are non-functional and the share of our spending on WASH sector has been declining from 0.70 per cent of the GDP in 1990 to about 0.27 per cent in 2015 which is far below the 0.70 per cent at the West African regional level?  Do you know that access to safe, clean water and hygienic sanitation is a basic human right which must always be achieved and respected? Come along.

The year was 1948. The UN published the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR).  This was followed by the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) of 1966.  Neither of these early documents explicitly recognized human rights to water and sanitation. Article 14.2 of the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)  states:

“parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in rural areas to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, that they participate in and benefit from rural development and, in particular shall ensure to women the right:… (h) To enjoy adequate living conditions, particularly in relation to housing, sanitation, electricity and water supply, transport and communications.”

This giant leap of the right to water is reinforced by the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).  Article 24 of the Convention provides:

“parties recognize the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health and to facilities for the treatment of illness and rehabilitation of health … 2. States parties shall pursue full implementation of this right and, in particular, shall take appropriate measures… (c) To combat disease and malnutrition, including within the framework of primary health care, through, inter alia… the provision of adequate nutritious foods and clean drinking water… “.

May God bless Stephen Mc Caffrey, a law professor of the University of the Pacific.  The year was 1992.  He posited in a UN Conference that there must be right to water.  He argues:  “Such a right could be envisaged as part and parcel of the right to food or sustenance, the right to health, or most fundamentally, the right to life. This position was corroborated by Dr. Peter Gleick in 1999 as he declares: ” access to a basic water requirement is a fundamental human right implicitly and explicitly supported by international law, declarations, and State practice.”  In 2002, the UN Committee for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) in General Comment 15 of 2002 found that a right to water was implicitly part of the right to an adequate standard of living.  It states:

“The human right to water entitles everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses. An adequate amount of safe water is necessary to prevent death from dehydration, to reduce the risk of water-related disease and to provide for consumption, cooking, personal and domestic hygienic requirements.”

In 2005, the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights issued guidelines to assist governments to achieve and respect the human right to water and sanitation.  This was followed by the 2006 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).   Article 28(2)(a) states:

“parties recognize the right of persons with disabilities to social protection and to the enjoyment of that right without discrimination on the basis of disability, and shall take appropriate steps to safeguard and promote the realization of this right, including measures to ensure equal access by persons with disabilities to clean water services,….”

Do you know that these guidelines led the UN Human Rights Council to assign Catarina de Albuquerque as an independent expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation in 2008?  Trust her! Her report in 2009  outlined human rights obligations to sanitation and that sanitation should be recognized by all States.  Hurray! On 28th July 2010, in Resolution 64/292, the General Assembly of the UN formally acknowledged: “the Human Right to Water and Sanitation”.  It recommended that water costs should not exceed 3 per cent of household incomeand must be  physically accessible.  Equally, it prescribes that the water source has to be within 1,000 meters of the home and collection time should not exceed 30 minutes. Do you know that in September 2010, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution recognizing that the human right to water and sanitation forms part of the right to good standard of living?

Major researches on water in that year 2010, showed besmearing statistics.  It was discovered that  87% of the world population (5.9 billion people) had access to piped water supply through house connections including stand-pipes, spring supplies and protected wells. However, about 13 per cent (about 900 million people) did not have access to an improved water source and had to use unprotected wells, springs, canals, lakes or rivers for their water needs.  It is a known fact that a clean water supply that is not polluted with fecal matter from lack of sanitation is a determinant of public health. The 900 million people having  access to water supply polluted with fecal matter  had their public health compromised.  Equally, the destruction of water supply and sanitation infrastructure after major catastrophes like earthquakes, floods and wars generated immediate threat of severe epidemics of life-threatening water-borne diseases.  That was the reason that revised UN resolution in 2015 high-lighted that the right to water and the right to sanitation were separate but equal.

Do you know that the pro-activeness of Aregbe on  water supply and sanitation has been the saving grace for our State against outbreaks of epidemics in the last eight years?  Do you know that there was no outbreak of Ebola Virus, yellow fever, lassa fever and widespread cholera?  Can you now see why President Buhari is towing the progressive line of thought of Aregbe on this matter?

Do you know that in 2015, the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation reported that 663 million people did not have access to improved sources of drinking water and more than 2.4 billion people lacked access to basic sanitation services?  Do you know that about 9 percent of the global population lacks access to water?  Are you aware that the UN emphasizes that about 1.5 million children under the age of five die each year and 443 million school days are lost because of water and sanitation-related diseases?  We are the victims of this ‘mass murder’.   Water is key!  The year was 2015.  The UN thought that this adverse statistics must be reversed.  The UN General Assembly came up Resolution 7/169 of 2015 declaring:  “The Human Rights to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation.

Do you know that this right is now prominent in international jurisprudence?  We remember the Inter-American Court of Human Rights case of the Sawhoyamaxa Indigenous Community v. Paraguay. The relocation of these local community in  1991from their ancestral land became a dispute in court.  The community pleaded in court the loss of access to basic essential services like water, food, schooling and health services contrary to the provisions Inter-American Convention on Human Rights which was perceived as a threat to  right to life. The courts held that their lands should be returned, compensation provided, and basic goods and services be implemented, while the community was in the process of having their lands returned.  Do you know that the right to water has been enshrined in the domestic laws of some countries?  Yes!

In South Africa, the right to water is enshrined in the constitution and implemented by ordinary statutes. This right was tested in the case of the Residents of Bon Vista Mansions v. Southern Metropolitan Local Council of South Africa.  In that case, the residents of a block of flats had their water supply disconnected by the Local Council because they failed to settle their water bills.  The court held that in adherence to the South African Constitution, ‘constitutionally all persons ought to have access to water as a right.’  In the popular case of Mazibuko v. City of Johannesburg, the quantity of water to be provided was a fact in issue in the case.   The case revolved around the distribution of water through pipes to Phiri, a section of Soweto. Two issues were canvassed before the court.  First, whether or not the city’s policy regarding the supply of free basic water, 6 kilo-litres per month to each account holder in the city was in conflict with Section 27 of the South African Constitution or Section 11 of the Water Services Act of South Africa.  Second, whether or not the installation of pre-paid water meters was lawful. It was held in the High Court that ‘the city’s by-laws did not provide for the installation of meters and that their installation was unlawful’. Further, as the meters halted supply of water to residence once the free basic water supply had ended, this was deemed ‘an unlawful discontinuation of the water supply’. The court held that the residents of Phiri should be provided with a free basic water supply of 50 litres per person per day. Q.E.D.

Do you know that water has trans-boundary effects? Do you know that scholars continue to argue that the right to water also has a trans-national or extra-territorial aspect? Do you query why Republic of Niger enjoys uninterrupted electricity supply from Nigeria while Nigeria cannot fix such luxury for itself?  It boils down to a strategic decision based on water-budget on River Niger.  Do you know why President Buhari is calling on the international communities to safe Lake Chad?  It is simply because the rapid depletion of the lake has depleted agricultural activities in the region, thus making insurgency very welcoming.  Do you know that it is estimated that 70% of worldwide water is used for irrigation? Do you know that it takes around 2,000 – 3,000 litres of water to produce enough food to satisfy one person’s daily dietary need? Do you know that to produce food for the now over 7 billion people who inhabit the planet today requires much water? Do you know that the Earth’s population is forecast to rise to 9 billion by 2050, an additional 2.5 or 3 billion people?  We need more strategic water reserve if humanity is to survive.

We remember the forecast of water management in agriculture sector by the International Water Management Institute in Sri Lanka.  The Institute declared that one third of the world’s population does not have access to clean drinking water, which is more than 2.3 billion people and this environmental trends are leading to crises in many parts of the world. Do you know that it is estimated that 22 per cent of worldwide water is used in industry such as hydroelectric dams, thermoelectric power plants, ore and oil refineries and manufacturing plants?  Do you know that it is estimated that 8 per cent of worldwide water use is for domestic purposes such as drinking water, bathing, cooking, toilet flushing, cleaning, laundry and gardening? Do you know that water is equally used for recreation by anglers, water skiers, nature enthusiasts and swimmers?  Do you know that rapid urbanization requires significant investment in water infrastructure in order to deliver water to individuals and to process the concentrations of wastewater – both from individuals and from business to reduce the danger they may pose as public health risks?

It is a notorious fact that climate change could have significant impacts on water resources around the world because of the close connections between the climate and hydrological cycle. It is to be regretted that expanding human population continue to deplete the quantity of safe drinking water.  Water pollution is one of the main concerns of the world today. The governments of numerous countries have striven to find solutions to reduce this problem. Many pollutants threaten water supplies, but the most widespread, especially in developing countries, is the discharge of raw sewage into natural waters.  This method of sewage disposal is the most common method in underdeveloped countries, particularly Nigeria.  The words of the former Vice President of the World Bank, Ismail Serageldincut in: “ the wars of the next century will be over water unless significant changes in governance occurred.”

Do you know that in 2025, it is predicted that water shortages will be more prevalent among poorer countries where resources are limited and population growth is rapid?  Do you know that Nigeria is in this picture?  Do you know that by that year, large urban and peri-urban areas will require new infrastructure to provide safe water and adequate sanitation?  Do you know that Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations has predicted that they will need to invest at least USD 200 billion per year to replace aging water infrastructure to guarantee supply, reduce leakage rates and protect water quality in their countries? Do you know that Nigeria is not in the race as we are united to borrow loans to finance elections and not to solve the basic problem of providing potable water for Nigerians?  Water is part of democracy.  Abi?

Different countries have established regulatory agencies for  water supply and sanitation to improve efficiency.  Equally, some countries came up with public-private management contracts as new initiative to drive the water and sanitation sector.  Statistics shows that 90 per cent  of urban water supply and sanitation services are currently in the public sector owned by the State or Local Governments. This trajectory  often leads to  negative political interference. To regulate compliance with standard, International Classification of Standards (ICS) 91.140.60 has been inaugurated.    This bench-marking of the performance of utilities allows the stimulation of competition, establish realistic targets for improvement and create pressure to catch up with better utilities. But availability of funds and capacity are limiting factors in Nigeria.  Do you know that throughout the world, only part of water cost is usually billed to consumers, the remainder being financed through direct or indirect subsidies from Local, State and Federal Governments?

According to a recent World Bank study,  only 30 per cent of utilities globally, and only 50 per cent of utilities in developed countries, generate sufficient revenue to cover operation, maintenance and partial capital costs.  This is equally true of Nigeria and the State of Osun. When last did you pay your water bills as at when due?   Do you know that responsibility of water supply in Nigeria is shared between three levels of government – federal, state and local? The federal government is in charge of water resources management.  State governments have the primary responsibility for urban water supply.  Local Governments together with communities are responsible for rural water supply. Regrettably, the responsibility for sanitation is not clearly defined.

It was discovered in a research in year 2015 that about 60 million people lacked access to “at least basic” water. It was revealed that only 33 per cent of the total population had access to “at least basic” sanitation. It was revealed that we had 39 per cent access to basic sanitation in the urban areas and 27 per cent in the rural areas.  That translates to about 122 million Nigerians still lacking access to “at least basic” sanitation. In a 36 State-structure, that translated to about 3 million people in each State, including Osun.

The adequate sanitation we are talking about is typically in the form of septic tanks.  Do you know that there is no central sewerage system in Nigeria, except for Abuja and some areas of Lagos?  All the other big cities and towns in Nigeria have no central sewerage system. Equally, only Lagos and Abuja, not even Port Harcourt have waste-water treatment plants. All hail Nigeria!  We are  ‘FIFA-rated’ as our country ranks second in the world in  open defecation.  We eat and drink our feaces indirectly, thus our public health is fatally compromised.  Nigerians still rely on donor agencies to give us access to clean water. We fall over ourselves to collect pittance from UNICEF to provide drinking water for our people. Do you know that the right to drink clean water is long violated in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria?  Do you know that residents are either forced to buy water at unaffordable prices or drink from contaminated wells?

One major issue in our efforts to provide potable water is capacity.  According to the World Bank in a recent study, water production facilities in Nigeria were “rarely operated to capacity due to broken down equipment, or lack of power or fuel for pumping.” The operating cost of water agencies is increased by the need to rely on diesel generators since power supply is erratic. Equipment and pipes are poorly maintained, leading to intermittent supply and high levels of non-revenue water. Research shows that about 80 per cent of all government-owned water systems in small towns were non-operational. Where are the Water Works constructed by the last administration before Aregbe in our State?  Electricity supply interruptions have shut them down.  Households source water from numerous private shallow wells, mostly sited near septic tanks or grave yards, or dung-hills in our urban communities. Our households rely on street vendors, creating a thriving market for “sachet water”, purified water packaged in polluted polyethylene pouches. Water vendors called Mairuwa sell water from unhygienic tanks and drums on carts or wheel-barrows and polluted plastic buckets.

Nigeria’s National Water Supply and Sanitation Policy encourages private-sector participation and envisages institutional and policy reforms at the state level. That is the reason that Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola paid due diligence to the sector by ensuring regular payments of counter-part funds to donor agencies in water sector, made handsome budgetary provisions for the sector, rehabilitated our water-works, ensured regular supply of potable water to all communities and crowned it all by breaking the age-long jinx of Ilesa Water Project by obtaining huge loans that will be sufficient to complete the project.  It must be stated that Aregbe built the capacity of Local Government by setting up Water and Sanitation Committees to own the sector in our communities.  The membership of the committee cuts across all opinions in our communities.

One major hindrance to the achievement of success in the sector at the national level is that the national policy on water supply and sanitation neglects sanitation as an entity.  And one more thing.  Nigeria was one of the countries that voted for right to water in 2010 at the General Assembly of the United Nations.  However, in 2018, eight clear years after we voted for right to water, Nigeria has not passed any legislation to enshrine the human right to water and sanitation in our constitution. Yet, we cherish to spend billions of Dollars or even take foreign loans every four years to alter our Electoral Act or alter the Constitution in favour of our elections.  An anonymous poem, possibly on our elections,  resonates:

“She spent all her days learning how to cook.

And she knows a thousand dishes.

But the man she later married only ate bread and milk.”

The new State of Emergency on Water and Sanitation declared by President Buhari will be like the solo ‘lamentations of Jeremiah’ in the wilderness, ‘full of sound and fury, signifying nothing’, if we fail to call for a fresh alteration act to amend the constitution to give right to water and sanitation to our people. We must end open defecation now.  We must stop free range animal and poultry rearing.  The country failed to meet the Millennium Development Goal for water and sanitation for 2015. We cannot afford to fail in 2025 or 2030.    Since 2008 community-led total sanitation has been introduced in six states, including Osun,  with the support of UNICEF and the EU. Thousands of latrines have been built in hundreds of  communities to curb open defecation.  Do you know that three levels of government share responsibility for the delivery of water supply services? The responsibility for sanitation is not always clear, but urban sanitation is a responsibility of State Governments.  Most States are broke and sanitation is fast becoming a weeping child.

The Federal Ministry of Water Resources, which had been part of the Ministry of Agriculture for a period until 2010, is responsible for large water resources development projects and water allocation between states. There are 12 River Basin Development Authorities under the Ministry, responsible for planning and developing water resources, irrigation work and the collection of hydrological, hydro-geological data. They also provide water in bulk to cities from dams. A Utilities Charges Commission was established in 1992 to monitor and regulate utility tariffs, including those of State Water Agencies. There is no effective synergy between these River Basins and State Governments of the Western Region of Nigeria.          Responsibility for potable water supply is entrusted to State Water Agencies (SWAs) Ministry of Water Resources.  The Local Government Authorities (LGAs)  are responsible for the provision of rural water supplies and sanitation facilities in their areas.  Osun has imbibed the initiative of creating community Water and Sanitation Committees (WASCOs) to supervise water and sanitation issues in our communities.  Nigeria needs more investments in water supply.  There is the need to appropriate more money to this sector like we are doing to the Independent National Electoral Commission.  While appreciating the efforts of the African Development Bank, the European Union, Japanese JICA, UNICEF, USAID, the NGO WaterAid, Action Against Hunger (NGO) and the World Bank on water supply in Nigeria, there is the need for us to tackle the problem frontally by appropriating resources to the sector.

We must thank Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola for tackling head-long, the long-standing Ilesa Water Project using PPP Initiative.  We thank him for his vision to make sanitation and healthy living parts of his integral action plan.  We thank him for declaring State of Emergency in this sector that paid off at last.  If President wants its initiative to declare a State of Emergency in Water and Sanitation sector to work like the magic of Aregbe, we need to insert the right to water and sanitation in Chapter Four of the 1999 Constitution (as ammeded).  He must go further to fund the sector like we are funding elections.  The vision of Aregbe has proved again to be laced due diligence and patently time-tested.  As you exit, may the shining light of Almighty brighten all your future paths. You are like a Halley’s comet, a meteor that appears once in a thousand years.