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Saturday 12 January 2013

63.6 million Nigerians lack access to potable water

Baku-APA. Water Sanitation And Hygiene (WASH), a media network concerned with sanitation and water, has said 63.6 million Nigerians have no access to potable water, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Dennis Deteer, chairman of its central north Plateau chapter, disclosed this in Jos on Friday when the body paid an advocacy visit to the Plateau State Community and Social Development Agency.

He said that Nigeria's MDG target was to supply 74 percent of the population with safe drinking water and 69 percent of the population with adequate sanitation by 2015.

The WASH official lamented that only 58 percent of Nigerians had access to safe drinking water, with only 32 percent population having access to good sanitation.

"At current rate of progress, the water target will be achieved in 2033, which is 18 years after the proposed 2015," he said.

According to him, the World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that 361,900 people die yearly due to poor water and sanitation in Nigeria.

UNICEF also estimates that 194,000 children under the age of 5 die from diarrhea caused by poor water and sanitation yearly, he said.

The chairman disclosed that WASH media network was a brain child of the Water Aid Nigeria with the objective of advocating, facilitating, supporting and monitoring water and sanitation issues.

He said the visit was to seek collaboration with the Plateau Agency and commended the agency's involvement in the sinking of boreholes, hand-dug wells and the provision of other social amenities especially to people in backward urban and rural areas.

Dauda Dinju, the Chief Executive Officer of the Plateau State Community and Social Development Agency, who received the WASH media network, assured the chairman of the agency's collaboration.

He called on the WASH media network to carry out adequate sensitization, especially in the rural areas, on the agency's activities.

The agency is in partnership with the World Bank and the Federal Ministry of Finance toward gathering sufficient funds for their activities.

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