By Kingsley Chukwuka
It is hard for us to imagine living in our homes without safe, clean drinking water and flushable toilets. What if you had to send your child out every day to collect water for domestic use, and what if the closest source of water was a polluted pond, stream or river, more than a mile away?, Trailblazer President, Rotarian, Jane Egbo, has said.
Egbo, who is the District President, 9125 Jos Rotary Utan, also said clean water, toilets and good hygiene practices are essential for the survival and development of children.
She stated this on Wednesday in Jos, during an advocacy visit to the Acting General Manager, Plateau State Water Board, Mrs Stella Buge.
The visit aimed at appealing for water extension in a toilet facility built and donated by Rotary 9125 to LGA Primary School Holl, Zaria road in Jos North, was also to ensure that the water board maintains a sustainable synergy with Rotary to constantly facilitate water sanitation.
Responding, the GM, Mrs Stella Buge said the Board will not hesitate to extend water to the facility, citing that without water sanitation cannot be guaranteed.
“We are delighted you are partnering with us to ensure water extension to a toilet facility. We will do our best to ensure that water gets to the toilet.
“If we have water in all our toilets, most of the diseases we have today will not be there in the first place.
“Poor access to clean water and sanitation remains a major contributing factor to high morbidity and mortality rates among children under five and the use of contaminated drinking water and lack of acceptable sanitary conditions result in increased vulnerability to water-borne diseases, including diarrhea which leads to deaths of more than 70,000 children under five annually”, Buge said.
Our correspondent reports that the world marks the World Water Day, 22nd March every year and the day is used to celebrate water and raises awareness of over 2.2 billion people living without access to safe water.