100 Years After, Riverine Communities Get Potable Water

By Chika Onyesi

Age long well in Kpokpo community

Water Water Everywhere, None to Drink

Many communities in the Niger Delta are located by the ocean or creeks but inspite of being surrounded by water bodies, safe drinking water and sanitation remains a luxury

Kpokpo Community in Opobo Nkoro Local Government Area of Rivers State is a typical case of water everywhere but non to drink.

Of course the community could neither drink nor cook with the sea water closest to them because of its salty nature.

Kpokpo and its sister communities, Aya-Ama and Ottalanma with a population of about 15,000, depended on wells in Nkoro - Ottalanma for their domestic use.

Like most coastal villages, sanitation activities around kpokpo community was low key and open defecation was a normal traditional practice.

They contributed majorly to the global 2.4 billion persons without access to improved sanitation and portable water across the world.

This fact reinforced the result of a National Outcome Routine Mapping of 2018, where only about 20.4 per cent of Nigerians were found to have access to basic water and sanitation services.

While explaining the water and sanitation situation in Nigeria at a media dialogue in Port Harcourt, UNICEF’S Chief of Communication, Zaid Jurji said ‘‘Nigeria has remained one of the top five open defection nations for the past 15 years and has moved from a 5th place in 2013 to a 2nd place in 2015 globally.’’

Jurji is worried that one in every four Nigerians still lacks access to basic toilet facilities, with 32 per cent in rural communities and about 39 per cent from poor homes.

He said ‘‘while 140 million Nigerians have cell phones, only 97 million have access to improved sanitation.’’

Jurji explained that ‘‘only 49 per cent of Nigerian schools have usable latrines while only 37 per cent health facilities have at least one usable toilet available for patients.”

As scary as these figures sound, kpokpo community lived this reality for over a decade of its existence.

Kpokpo Community and the Wash Reality

Women and children were mostly affected by the poor access to water and sanitation situation in kpokpo community.

60 years Katherine Otonye who has lived all her life in the village said the community has had several wells before the current one. 

According to her ‘‘women trekked up to 45 minutes to one hour every day to get water for domestic use’’

 ‘‘Younger women go to the well around 8pm and 9pm so they can get clean water and we have to let the water settle before we can cook with it’’

She said incidents of sexual abuse while on water fetching errands was common while children who go to fetch in morning either went late to school or fell ill because of the contaminated well water.

Mother of five, 32 years old Monema Peters, said they had to go to the well in groups to keep safe.

‘‘We are exposed to sand flies and reptiles while going to the well through the bush path, our children have malaria and diarrhoea often because of the bad water she says’’

The Secretary, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Committee in the State, Mr. Ngerebo Dickson, also confirmed that the community had witnessed an outbreak of cholera in the past as a result of unsafe drinking water.

According to UNICEF’S WASH specialist, Zaid Jurji, nearly 90 per cent of under five deaths from diarrhoea is attributed to poor Water, Sanitation and Hygiene.

‘‘122,000 Nigerians, including 87,000 children under 5 die each year from preventable diseases caused by poor water, and a lack of sanitation and hygiene’’

EU/ UNICEF to the Rescue

To bring succour to the people, the European Union and the UNICEF in partnership with the Rivers state government commenced a water project in Opobo Nkoro local government, three communities; Kpokpo, Aya-Ama and Ottalanma were beneficiaries.

The solar powered water project is expected to reduce the incidence of communicable diseases like diarrhea and cholera and eliminate childhood mortality in the region.

According to a WASH specialist, Martha Hokonya ‘‘the project is expected to strengthen the capacity of Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Institutions and provide access to improved sources of safe drinking water and basic sanitation.’’

Meanwhile the Chief of WASH, UNICEF, Zaid Jurji says the gaps in water, sanitation and hygiene services in Nigeria are far more expensive than imagined.

‘‘Nigeria is severely under-resourced, sanitation is only 19% of the total WASH budget, state funding is limited and there is low budget expenditure, Nigeria loses N455 billon each year due to lack of sanitation but needs only about N95.9 billion to eradicate open defecation by 2025 he says’’ 

The Chairman, Opobo/Nkoro Local Government Area of Rivers State, Eugene Joshua Jaja who lauded the project said with sensitisation, communities are now building houses with toilets in them and will soon become open defecation free.

He explained that plans have been put in place to ensure the projects are protected.

‘‘We have arranged internal and formal security to ensure that nobody tampers with the project he says.’’

According to kpokpo community members, especially women, life has become way easier with water at their doorsteps. 

‘’This water has solved many of our problems, I no longer trek from here to Okorotu every day for one gallon of water that may not be enough for one day Adeline Pius a trader in the community says’’

Monema Peters said her children no longer complain of stomach ache and the

stooling has also reduced.

Despite the success of Opobo Nkoro water project, many other riverine communities still wallow in poor sanitation.

This according to experts has stalled Nigeria’s chances of attaining Sustainable Development Goal 6, which aims to ensure sustainable management of sanitation and water for all by 2030

The United Nations now wants government to prioritise sanitation.

US briefly shuts Mexico border crossing

The US temporarily closed its busiest border crossing with Mexico to boost security after a migrant caravan arrived in northern Mexico.

Northbound traffic and half the pedestrian crossings at the San Ysidro border point were shut to install new movable wire-topped barriers.

Around 110,000 people enter the US daily through the crossing.

In the Mexican border city of Tijuana residents held protests demanding the migrants leave the area

Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum said on Friday he expected the number of migrants arriving in the city in the coming weeks to reach 10,000, warning the city was not prepared to handle the "avalanche".

READ MORE: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46267678

Diddy pays tribute to ex Kim Porter

Diddy has paid tribute to his ex Kim Porter, who died last week.

The American rapper said they "were more than soulmates" in a series of emotional posts on Twitter and Instagram.

The model and actress was 47 and was the mother to three of Diddy's children.

Numerous celebrities including Rihanna, 50 Cent and Missy Elliott paid tribute to her last week, but this is the first time Diddy has broken his silence.

READ MORE: https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-46266598

President Buhari Meet State Governors Over N30, 000 Minimum Wage

By Williams Anuku

President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday met behind closed doors with representatives of Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) over the disagreement between the organised labour and state governors on the proposed N30,000 minimum wage.

Although the meeting was brief reporters covering the State House were barred from the meeting even as the governors declined to comment on the outcome of their meeting.

Some of the Governors spotted at Aso Rock by our correspondent included the Chairman of the forum and Governor of Zamfara state, Abdulaziz Yari, that of Lagos, Akinwumi Ambode, Bauchi, Atiku Bagudu among others.

Recall that controversies over a new National Minimum Wage has lingered for quite some time with the Federal and State governments still divided on how to go about its implementation.

While the Federal government had initially settled for N24,000 states had insisted they can't go beyond N22, 500 but pressures from the organised Labour comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress, Trade Union Congress and United Labour Congress had compelled the presidency to settled for N30,000 in order to avert a proposed strike by the unions.

Recently the Nigerian Governors Forum met in Abuja, the nation's capital where they threatened to sack workers in their employ if they must abide by the N30,000 a development Labour kicked against.

FG kicks off education sector reforms

The Federal Government on Monday, said it is currently implementing reforms in the education sector to boost the delivery of services to Nigerians.

Speaking at a One-day Sensitisation Workshop on Reform Agenda and Awareness Campaign on Self-values Orientation for Directors of the Education Ministry and Parastatals in Abuja, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Arc. Sonny Echono, said substantial progress has already been made in the reform process.

Echono said the reforms were in line with the transformation agenda of the current administration being implemented in all sectors.

 He noted that the reform agenda of government was gathering momentum in all sectors of national life, urging all in the education sector to come together to review their performance in line with government’s directives in every department and parastatal.

“We are committed, as a government, to improve service delivery to our people; we are also committed to blocking leakages, to reducing waste, to minimising idle time and to ensure that the limited resources placed at our disposal are used in a prudent and judicious manner to better the lives of our people,” he said.

He stated that the education sector was not only saddled with the responsibility of impacting knowledge and skills but also moulding the moral character and other attributes of the children placed in their disposal.

“We are also required at headquarter, to formulate policies and programmes that would advance the cause of national development, bearing in mind that education is the bedrock of all activities in our national development.

“We need to look inwards and see that given the difficult conditions we find ourselves, given the limited tools we have to do our work; how well are we applying ourselves, and what improvisation, what innovation, what extra effort are we making to ensure that we deliver our assignments on time, meet target and work under pressure as required?” he said.

Echono urged directors of various departments in the ministry and parastatals to imbibe a change of attitude in line with the federal government’s transformation agenda.

He stressed that for the country to achieve good governance, efficiency, self-value orientation and attitudinal change must be the watch word of staff at the directorate cadre, adding that a culture of discipline, punctuality, hard work in discharging official responsibility should be emphasised. 

“I must also stress that as heads of departments and units, you all are expected to demonstrate high level of integrity and sincerity which values are immeasurable,” he said.

Speaking further, the Perm Sec urged the directors to carry out their duties in a manner that is responsive to the country’s needs and in tandem with the objectives and aspirations of government, stressing that the ministry would soon entrench a reward system that is performance-based.

He said there was a dearth of skilled, committed officers in the civil service as a common conversation among permanent secretaries was how they could get good and dependable officers who can rise to the occasion at short notice.

He expressed the displeasure of the federal government over the growing number of out-of-school children, illiterate adults and kids who are in school but are not learning.

Earlier, the Director of reform coordination and service improvement Department of the Ministry, Mr Linus Egeruo, said the reform was centred on the ministry’s institutional capacity to check corruption and entrench organisational integrity and competence.

“It is therefore a logical necessity to state that the echelon of the public service should live by example in tandem to zero tolerance to corruption in line with the change mantra of the present government,” Egeruo said.

Without regular sex women risk mental disorder – Psychiatrist

 

A psychiatrist, Dr Maymunah Kadiri on Saturday advised married women to have regular sex with their spouses in order to prevent depression and gain happiness.

Depression is a common mental disorder that causes people to experience depressed mood, loss of interest or pleasure, feelings of guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep or appetite, low energy, and poor concentration.

Kadiri, the Medical Director of Pinnacle Medical Services gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

Pinnacle is a health and wellness centre for psychological, behavioral, and mental health related issues.

According to her, sex is not just to nourish a woman’s body, but it is also beneficial to her mental health.

READ MORE: https://www.nan.ng/news/without-regular-sex-women-risk-mental-disorder-psychiatrist/