The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) says 26.5 million Nigerian children experience high or extremely high water vulnerability.
The UN agency, in the Water Security for All report, also revealed that more than 1.42 billion people – including 450 million children – are living in areas of high or extremely high water vulnerability.
UNICEF made the findings known on the 2021 World Water Day (WWD) – a day to celebrate water and its importance, and to also raise awareness of the 2.2 billion people worldwide living without access to safe water.
The report identifies areas where physical water scarcity risks overlap with poor water service levels, adding that the world is in a water crisis, and children’s lives and futures are at risk.
‘The world’s water crisis is not coming – it is here, and children are its biggest victims’, UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, said Peter Hawkins, said in a statement.
‘When wells dry up, children are the ones missing school to fetch water. When droughts diminish food supplies, children suffer from malnutrition and stunting.
‘When floods hit, children fall ill from waterborne illnesses. And when water is not available in Nigerian communities, children cannot wash their hands to fight off diseases’.
Despite efforts by the Ministry of Water Resource and its partners to strengthen the water sector’s planning and monitoring, studies show that over 86 percent of Nigerians lack access to a safe water source.
With its current water challenges, Nigeria is expected to not meet up with its SDG targets on people’s access to water unless stronger commitment and appropriate actions are taken by key stakeholders.
‘We have to act now both to address the water crisis in Nigeria to prevent it from getting worse and if we want to meet the SDGs’, Hawkins added.
‘We can only achieve water security for every Nigerian – including the Nigerian child – through innovation, investment and collaboration, and by ensuring services are sustainable and well-managed.
‘We must act – for the sake of our children and our planet’.
Although about 70 percent of Nigerians are reported to have access to basic water services, more than half of these water sources are contaminated.
Source: UNICEF
Photo source: UNICEF
