WATER AND WASTE MANAGEMENT

 

My project supervisor is a renown icon of Political Economy who nurture World Trade Organization into the soul of bukites, he initiate the Mock Ministerial WTO Summit in BUK since 2007 everybody like to associate with him, because of his hospitably and fatherly behavior even due he has a policy that for you to be his student, you have to be above average student. He always to me that ‘the road to success is hard work’ in person of M M YUSIF to know much about him visit www.mmyusif.blogspot.com

Aristotle seen Political Science as a Master Science and he also personify Political Science as a ‘mad man with stick in the market’. I only agree with him, when am doing my pre-project readings as instructed by Mallam to read 50 text books on INTERNATATIONAL TRADE ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT. I realist that as Political Scientist now fully reading books on Chemistry, Biology, Geography, Agriculture and so on. Especially as I narrowed my topic to Trade Environmental service: the implication of water and waste management under GATs for development in Nigeria. it seen as having three degree apart from Political Science, as in Environmental Management Resources, Water Resource Management and Waste Management. These make me special among my fellow Scientist whose written are on Democracy, Federalism, Military, Rule of Law and so on. Because those concept is common to everybody. Here is little knowledge on my project.

I have no doubt that water is life, because water is a fundamental input for agriculture, energy production, manufacturing and tourism, and vital for achieving public-health goal and it constitutes 75% of earth crust.  Safe water has been described as water that meets the National Standard for Drinking Water Quality for Nigeria (FMWR, 2004). However, abnormally low levels of access to clean water by a large proportion of humanity have been reported. Worldwide, about 2 billion people struggle daily for access to clean and sufficient water (Smith and Marin, 2005). Africa is the region that suffers most from inadequate access to water supply. Yahaya (2004) reported that in Africa, only 62% of the populations have access to potable water supply (compared with 82 % Worldwide, 81% in Asia and 85% in Latin America). Furthermore, of 55 countries in the world whose domestic water use is below 50 litres per capita per day, 35 are in Africa. In Nigeria, 52% of the population does not have access to safe drinking water (UNDP 2006; UNICEF 2007).

 Worldwide, some 2.4 billion people lack access to basic sanitation and 1.2 billion, or one in five, lacks safe drinking water. The rapidly increasing urban population in developing countries has generated a mounting demand for drinking water that has outstripped its supply (UNCED, 1998). Inadequate solid waste disposal is the second most pressing problem facing city residents after unemployment in Nigeria. According to United Nation Statistic Division (UNSD, 2009) Nigeria has a population of about 140 million with an annual urban growth of 3.8%. It is a developing country that has persistent solid waste management problems in addition to her growing population (George, 2008). An average Nigerian generates about 0.49 kg of solid waste per day with households and commercial centers contributing almost 90% of total urban waste burden (Onwukwe, 1993). NEST (1999) estimated that of the 4.5 million tons of waste generated in Nigeria in 1999, a little below 1.5 million tons was generated by each of Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna and Kano. In another study, NEST estimated that about 40 million tons of waste would be generated in Nigeria between 2005 and 2010.

The growth in energy consumption worldwide has significantly increased greenhouse gas emissions. Excess nitrogen emissions have resulted from increased use of fertilizers and the burning of fossil fuels. Continued deforestation and increasing levels of pollution have been affecting biodiversity. Other activities, such as over-fishing, result in deterioration of the marine environment (OECD, 2001). In 20 years, if current trends continue, three and a half billion people will live in countries facing “water stress”—having less than 1,000 liters of water per person a year. Each day 6,000 people, mostly children, die from diseases caused by lack of access to clean water and sanitation (UNEP, 2001).

Improved access to safe drinking water is a prerequisite to poverty reduction as outlined by the MDGs. Access to safe drinking water prevents the spread of water-borne and related diseases. The government invested heavily in the water sector in an effort to provide potable water at close proximity to every Nigerian but do to low productivity, financial mismanagement (including poor economic governance), low cost recovery and the use of the revenue for unrelated activities, especially by local authorities (Mabogunje, 2002). Serve as a bottleneck for Nigerians to have access to water and sanitation with net rural-urban migration overwhelming Nigeria’s cities, over half the urban population lives in informal settlements with no direct connection to municipal water or sewage service. About 60% of the urban population has access to safe drinking water, and the corresponding figure for rural Nigerians is 34%. Access and cost of access to piped drinking water are tilted against the poor, who must buy their water from vendors at very high prices. ( world bank 2003).

Despite Nigeria’s open trade policy and its commitment to GATs rules and legislation, yet 65% of Nigerian populous lack accesses to safe drinking water and sanitation due to rapid urbanization, rural-urban migration, little or no town planning efforts coupled with attitudinal irresponsibility, lack of political will, ineptitude and graft have independently and collectively created environmental challenge in Nigeria. Consequently, water-borne disease such as diarrhea kills thousands of children annually (Akingbade, 1991).

Poor disposal of solid waste is associated with spread of vector borne-diseases like malaria and dengue fever (ibid 1991). Infrequently disposed refuse tend to become breeding sites for mosquitoes, as pools of rain water collect in discarded cans, bottles and car tires. Uncollected waste left to accumulate or dumped in the streets can block water drains and channels which can cause flooding, posing significant environmental and public health risks (Nubi et al, 2006). Example can be citing during 2012 raining season in Plateau, Kano and other States which claims lives and properties of Nigerians.

 

In a recent online survey by the Sahara Reporters, an online news media focusing on Nigeria, Ibadan and Lagos were described as the filth centers of the world. While Ibadan ranked as the number one dirtiest city in the world, Lagos, despite being the economic hub of Nigeria, was ranked fourth dirtiest city in the world.