Why you are unlikely to see a handpump in Maitama
Part II: Sources of Drinking Water in Nigeria
In part I, I was able to point out that water quality characteristics can be summed into three categories:
· Chemical
· Biological and
· Organoleptic
In this post, I intend to go one more step to identify some salient issues surrounding water treatment in Nigeria. In other words, at the end of this post, you should be able to understand the need to treat water if any exists.
To begin, the need to treat drinking water depends on the source of the water. In Nigeria, we have three to four sources depending on where you live. In the table below, I have outlined these sources, their quality and susceptibility to pollution.
From the table above we can see that apart from the source the decision to treat water will also depend on:
· Location
· Collection, storage and distribution
· Sanitary conditions around the water source.
For instance, if you live in Aba, you may find your groundwater free of mineralized salts (i.e. it is tasteless). This is not the same with folks in Ebonyi, some parts of Kogi or Coastal areas like Bayelsa or Lagos Island. Another point, I will like to draw from the table is that we are not really accustomed to water treatment in Nigeria unlike other developed countries because we rely on groundwater abstraction (boreholes) for our drinking water supply. The first reason for this is that surface water treatment is very elaborate, not to mention the prohibitive cost of piping and pumps it requires. The second one is connected to the point I made in the earlier post regarding our love for decentralized technologies (like generators, telecommunication, self-medication etc) as against a working centralized system. Unfortunately, this is a subtle euphemism for saying that we live in a failed state. Did I just say that?
In view of the foregoing, one can argue then, that there is really no need to go into the fine details of describing what would be required to get our water to the accepted quality as groundwater has the lowest need for treatment. But then the reality is far from this. So the key question becomes is there really a need to treat groundwater at all?
To answer that, I will like to further x-ray some potential issues with groundwater which justify why most developed countries shun it.
· It is very hard to monitor its quantity and quality.
· It can be suspect if you do not consult a good hydrogeologist.
· The quality of water it generates is dependent on the depth of the water table in your location. In areas with shallow water tables like the Niger Delta, strict guidelines need to be observed. (Who enforces this?)
· On the other hand, drilling becomes very expensive when the water table is too deep like in the North or rocky areas or where you have coal seams overlaying the aquifer (water-bearing rock) like in Enugu.
· It is often mineralized which is healthy but the taste is a concern to many.
· Lastly, while its quality is generally fine, it is subject to recontamination from storage and distribution.
Of all the points outlined above, the most notable issues in Nigeria are cost, quality and taste. Because these three are variable in different locations, people often resort to other alternatives. I will tell two stories to illustrate this point.
While in Junior high school, water was scarce. This was not only an issue for the school. It was also an issue in the community. We had only two main sources of water. A spring and an old hand pump. During the rush hours (5 am to 7 am) which you would understand if you were a boarder, the locals could not get reasonable access to any of these as we students could barely contain the struggle to get water. However, after the rush hours, I observed that the locals had a strict preference for the spring. By the time I was in SS2, our PTA built more hand pumps which reduced the pressure but yet the locals were unfazed. They persisted with their use of the spring. This is because even though the quality of the water from the pumps was premium, the spring water was tasteless and didn’t waste soap.
The second example occurred while staying with a friend in Abuja. Now, this friend lived in a very nice apartment with running water. Yet he had a strict preference for water sachet. When I inquired why he shunned tapwater he said he could not guarantee its quality was because the tanks are not washed. I believe my friend’s concern is justified.
Water quality is time-dependent and the risk of recontamination is high if adequate care is not taken. So I have found out that as people advance in wealth or education, they also become more conscious of the source of their drinking water. So the richer or educated a person is, the more likely he is to go for a more reliable source of drinking water. More like:
Handpump<<Tapwater<<Water Sachet<<Bottled Water<<Water Dispenser
For this reason, you will agree that For this reason, you will agree that it is unlikely to see a handpump in Maitama. So what happens as more Nigerians become enlightened (I don’t know about richer)? Will our rulers (not leaders) keep using the lure of hand pumps to woo voters?
Well, I hope you have found reading this piece interesting and enlightening. We have now established that the need to treat groundwater is justifiable. So in our next post, we shall now delve into the technologies that can help us treat groundwater. Please do not forget to like and share our posts.
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