Millions of people in Europe drink contaminated water, often without knowing it. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that, every day, 14 people die of diarrhoeal disease due to inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH).

Clean and safe drinking-water at home is frequently unavailable, particularly for those living in rural areas. In the European Region, 57 million people do not have piped water at home, and 21 million people still lack access to basic drinking-water services. These people use water from unprotected dug wells and springs, directly consume surface water, or need more than 30 minutes to collect water. About three quarters of people without access to basic drinking-water services live in rural areas.

The WHO sets global health-based guidelines for drinking-water quality. The water safety plan (WSP) approach is a core pillar of these guidelines. WHO considers WSPs to be the most effective means of consistently ensuring the safety of a drinking-water supply.

WHO/Europe, through the European Centre for Environment and Health (ECEH) in Bonn, Germany, works with countries to implement the guidelines. ECEH supports countries to survey and assess their drinking-water supplies, and to prioritise what needs to be done to improve water quality and access to safe services. The outcomes of these activities become part of national policies and measures, leading to the adoption of the WSP approach.

Safe water projects in Serbia and Tajikistan

Recent WHO projects in Serbia and Tajikistan have highlighted the challenges people living in rural areas face in accessing safe drinking-water. In Tajikistan, for example, 32% of the rural population does not have access to basic drinking-water services.

On the issue of water safety, one third of rural water systems inspected in Serbia did not meet standards for microbiological drinking-water quality, and more than 60% were exposed to possible contamination from latrines, sewers, animal breeding, cultivation, roads, industry, rubbish and other sources of pollution placed nearby.

“The national-level assessment of small-scale water supplies in rural areas has created a strong foundation for identifying key threats to public health from drinking-water,” said Dr Ferenc Vicko, State Secretary at the Ministry of Health of Serbia. “The outcomes of the assessment also provided strong health arguments for making WHO-recommended water safety plans mandatory, developing action plans and raising public awareness.”

The findings of the WHO-supported survey in Serbia informed specific recommendations for national authorities, and these have led to revised regulations. The country has already made two key interventions to improve small-scale water supplies. First, it added a new provision in the draft law on drinking-water that stipulates the introduction and implementation of mandatory WSPs to ensure safe drinking-water supply management. Second, it is increasingly enforcing regulation on the foundation and ownership of water supply systems (regardless of size) to ensure their management by authorised legal entities.

In Tajikistan, WHO provides opportunities for broad capacity-building by supporting the establishment of a national team of WSP facilitators, and by strengthening local experience in developing WSPs through closely guided pilot projects in rural areas.

Outcomes of the safe water project in Tajikistan include the integration of the WHO-recommended WSP approach into a draft law, and the country’s stronger personnel and laboratory capacity for the surveillance of drinking-water supply and quality. Funded by the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the project is co-led by the Tajik Ministry of Health and Social Protection and WHO/Europe.

“I was impressed that water users in Sino village (Tajikistan) used their free time to dig out filthy drinking-water pipes from rock-hard soil to move the supply’s inlet from an open river to a protected spring. It was a great motivation to continue our work on drinking-water safety in the Region,” noted Mr Oliver Schmoll, Programme Manager of Water and Climate at ECEH.

These projects have also empowered those living in rural areas. In Serbia, for the first time, people have information about the quality of the drinking-water they consume. They also know they have the right to petition local communities to take over the management of piped water supplies, in accordance with national legislation. In Tajikistan, where WHO trained project communities on water safety planning principles, people can take ownership of identifying water supply risks and finding suitable measures to mitigate them, supported by advice from local WSP facilitators and water supply engineers.

The WSP approach

The WSP approach focuses on comprehensive risk assessment and risk management to ensure that water from a particular supply system is safe to drink. WSPs identify chemical and microbiological hazards of local concern, including the ways in which those hazards can enter the water supply. They cover all steps in the water supply, from collection through to storage, treatment and delivery. On this basis, WSPs lead to better management, operation, monitoring and public health surveillance of water supplies.

Guidance to the European Commission

WHO/Europe recently provided comprehensive recommendations to the European Commission on the planned revision of the European Union Drinking Water Directive. These recommendations detail how protecting people’s health from the negative effects of consuming contaminated drinking-water should go beyond measuring compliance with standard water quality parameters; it should involve adopting a more tailored, risk-based approach for each water supply system. The foundation of the WHO recommendations is the WSP approach, which provides the most effective means of consistently ensuring the safety of a drinking-water supply.

World Water Day

World Water Day, marked each year on March 22, provides an opportunity to advocate for further action to ensure that we reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to WASH. WHO says it is working at global, regional and national levels towards reducing deaths and illnesses from waterborne diseases and water contamination, and towards achieving universal and equitable access to safe, sustainable and affordable drinking water for all.

Global and regional goals

Several of the SDGs refer specifically to water safety and access. For example, SDG 3.3 seeks to combat waterborne diseases; SDG 3.9 to reduce the number of deaths and illnesses from water contamination; and SDG 6.1 to achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking-water for all.

In 2017, Member States in the Region agreed to the Ostrava Declaration, committing them to take action to ensure universal, equitable and sustainable access to safe drinking-water, sanitation and hygiene for all and in all settings, while promoting integrated management of water resources and the reuse of safely treated wastewater.

In 1999, European Member States adopted the Protocol on Water and Health, which is jointly supported by WHO/Europe and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). The Protocol contributes to implementing the water-related SDGs and the Ostrava commitments in the Region. It provides an effective policy tool, calling on countries to establish national targets and implementation plans related to WASH. To date, 26 countries in the Region have ratified the Protocol. Currently, Serbia is Chair of the Bureau to the Protocol.

Water contamination and water-related diseases

Further work is needed to fully address persisting gaps in WASH in the Region, where water-related disease outbreaks remain a common occurrence. Contamination from naturally occurring substances such as arsenic and fluoride, and from human-sourced substances such as lead, nitrate and industrially derived chemicals, is a concern in many places.

The most commonly reported infectious diseases linked to WASH in the Region are campylobacteriosis (a bacterial gastrointestinal infection), hepatitis A (a viral liver disease) and giardiasis (a parasitic infection of the small intestine, also known as beaver fever).

Available published data indicate that approximately 18% of reported and investigated outbreaks are linked to water. However, the true extent of water-related diseases in the Region is unknown, and likely to be much higher than data suggest.

The Lagos Water Corporation on Tuesday, March 20, 2018 said the corporation would carry out three-Day water tests in its eight operational regions in Lagos State, to mark the 2018 World Water Day.

Mrs Monsurat Banire, the Lagos Water Corporation’s Head of Quality Assurance, said this in a statement signed by the Public Relations Officer, Mr Rasaq Anifowoshe, in Lagos.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the theme for the 2018 World Water Day is entitled: ‘Nature for Water’.

The theme explores how we can use nature to overcome the water challenges of the 21st century.

According to Banire, its team from the Quality Assurance and Sales & Commercial Departments will take samples of water used in the locations covered, whether from LWC or boreholes, among others.

“The essence is to show the general public the quality of water the corporation is serving them.

“The corporation’s water is clean, safe and good for human consumption.

“Borehole water could be contaminated.

“After the exercise, we expect those using boreholes to migrate and connect to the corporation’s water supply once water pipes pass through their locations.

“The LWC water conforms to the World Health Organisation’s standard,” she said.

Banire said that as worthy ambassadors of the corporation, the staff were expected to be polite in answering questions and friendly to all consumers.

She said that the exercise would cover the corporation’s eight operational zones, which have been mapped into four areas for easy accessibility.

NAN reports that among the four areas are: Lagos Island, Surulere and Ikeja.

By Chidinma Agu

Some students of the Department of Geography, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, recently visited some sites in Abuja to obtain a first-hand assessment of water and sanitation facilities.

Their mission is to understand key environmental challenges and proffer solutions to them through research.

They believe that the outcome of the research will contribute to achieving the17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) before 2030, particularly the Goal 6 of the scheme.

Goal 6 of the SDGs specifically focuses on ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

The students note that this goal – ensuring sustainable water resources – is fundamental to human health, environmental sustainability and economic prosperity and must be followed seriously.

Prof. Nasiru Idris, the Head, Department of Geography in the university, said that the students visited Lower Usuma Dam Water Treatment Plant, Bwari, the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), Abuja, Wupa Wastewater Treatment Plant and Gossa Waste Dump in Abuja.

“The reason why we visited Lower Usuma Dam Water Treatment Plant is because water is life and geography is a study of space and time; it encompasses everything.

“Secondly, we visited NASRDA to know the development in Nigeria’s space; we wanted to know what they are doing with the issue of insecurity,’’ he said.

He said that they chose Wupa Wastewater Treatment Plant and Gossa Waste Dump to know more about converting wastes – solid and liquid – to wealth.

According to him, 249 postgraduate students participated in the programme, which he said was an integral part of the post graduate schemes in the institution.

He noted that the students would carry out their fieldwork in groups to enable them to suggest measures to prevent environmental problems.

During the visit, Dr Samaila Kunden, a senior lecturer in the department, identified increased population of people in Abuja as one of the factors affecting water resources.

“Water is reducing and there is need for continuous and intense monitoring of such resources to meet the demands and requirements of the ever increasing population,’’ he said.

Expressing concern about the level of water resources, Mr Agbortean Osareme, Head of Department of Reservoir and Production, Lower Usuma Dam Water Treatment Plant, said the dam usually harvested raw water from rainfall and treated it for consumption, describing its water supply to the public as safe.

One of the postgraduate students, Mr Simon Peter, however, said he would put the knowledge he acquired from the visit to improve on the environment, especially on improved water sources.

Another student, Ms Hadiza Suleiman, said the experience had given her the opportunity to witness the process of water distillation.

Mr Seidu Mohammed, the Director-General, NASRDA, also advised the students to utilise satellite technology in their research work to ensure sustainability in the management of issues on the environment.

However, one of the students, Ms Juliet Ihechukwu, expressed concern that science and technology had not been given utmost attention and called for more commitment in the sector.

At the Wupa Wastewater Treatment Plant, Mr Adamu Maina, a post-graduate student of Environmental Resources Management, said he would do his research on water-related topic for the purpose of improving methods of sourcing potable water.

Maina said that the choice of his research was influenced by his visit to Lower Usuma Dam Water Treatment Plant and Wupa Wastewater Treatment Plant.

He said: “It is very important to understand the processes of the treatment of water and liquid waste to enhance their sustainability.’’

However, Mr Ayeni Folusho, the Head of Quality Control Laboratory Wupa Wastewater Treatment Plant, informed the visiting students that the plant treated more than1, 000 cubic metres of wastewater per hour.

“The water we are treating here is a liquid waste (domestic waste water) from Abuja; we discharge it to the environment (Wupa River) after treatment because that is the concept of waste water treatment.

“Wastewater must not be discharged directly into the environment, because it will cause epidemic,’’ Folusho said.

But Mr Atiku Abubakar, an official of Abuja Environmental Protection Board, advised the students to also do research on resource recovery in waste management.

According to him, resource recovery is the collection and reuse of disposed materials such as empty beverage containers.

“The materials from which the items are made can be reprocessed into new products; I advise that the students should conduct research on the treatment of wastes to find solutions to environmental problems.

“All the things you are seeing on the dump site are resources, if they can go into research on resource recovery, they could be a good source of wealth creation,’’ he said.

The visitors, therefore, advised the Federal Government and Federal Capital Territory Authority to budget more money to maintain water and sanitation facilities across the country.

They also advised the relevant authorities to build more wastewater treatment plants across the country.

They hold the belief that if more attention is given to achieving environmental sustainability, the country can even achieve all SDGs before 2030.

By Cecilia Ologunagba, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)