NAN-AE-6
Pollution
By Tosin Kolade
Abuja, July 7, 2017 (NAN) The Nigerian Association of Hydrogeologists has raised an alarm over indiscriminate contamination and depletion of underground water resources in parts of the country.
The association’s President, Mr Charles Olumese, conveyed the association’s concern on Friday while speaking with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
Describing the situation as an ‘‘emergency,’’ Olumese said that that the challenge was the leading cause of some water-borne diseases among the populace.
He, therefore, called for concerted efforts to solve the problem so as to save lives and mitigate the people’s sufferings.
He said that the depletion of underground water resources had given rise to serious salt water intrusion, largely due to uncontrolled attraction of underground water resources through factors such as indiscriminate drilling of boreholes.
“If we allow this to continue, we are going to run into a serious problem in the future; we would have, by our own activities, destroyed the precious resource that God has given to us.
“It may interest you to know that in Benin City where I reside, that area used to have the best underground water and the most potable water.
“But today, because of uncontrolled drilling of boreholes, whether for water attraction or disposal of waste water, that underground resource has become polluted.
“As a result, certain homes that now take water from that underground source get contaminated or get infected with water-borne diseases like diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid.
“You find incidences of typhoid becoming very high even in Benin City; a city that has very good underground water resources.
“So we believe the Federal Ministry of Water Resources can do something about it; we can bring to the fore what we see that is not properly done,” he said.
Olumese said that his association was striving to protect the nation’s surface and underground water resources through effective policies and programmes.
He expressed regret that water resources management in the country had been undertaken without the necessary synergy with other key stakeholders and tiers of government.
He, however, advised the state and local governments to carry the Federal Ministry of Water Resources along in any activity pertaining the water sector.
Olumese said whenever the groundwater became polluted with different things; remediation often took a longer time to happen.
He, therefore, underscored the need for a deliberate policy to monitor of the quality of groundwater.
He also called for a partnership with multilateral organisations to promote effective data gathering in the event of any pollution, adding that the capacity of the National Water Resources Institute should also be strengthened. (NAN)
TAK/MOL/OOK
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Edited by Mustapha Lamidi and Dayo Komolafe