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Waiting for the wastewater management crisis

Alex Abutu*

By GRID-Arendal

October 6^th, 2017

The perceived abundance of water resources in many countries in Africa means less effort is made to treat and reuse wastewater.

Nevertheless, the African adage, water-water everywhere but none to drink, is true on a continent where millions of cubic metres of water is wasted every year while almost half the population lack access to clean and safe drinking water.

“Wastewater management is not yet an emergency for us here in Nigeria due to the abundance of freshwater in the country, unlike other countries,” says Benson Ajisegiri, the water supply director in Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Water Resources.

While African countries wait for nature to recycle wastewater for them, most countries are already experiencing scarcity while in others water resources are under intense pressure from population growth and urbanisation, rapid industrialisation, and intensifying food production.

There may be many reasons for Africa’s current water situation, but one could be the absence of strategies to ensure that wastewater is turned into purposeful use. Reliance on natural systems for the treatment of wastewater is inadequate. This includes natural wetlands that are used for purifying large volumes of wastewater before it ends up in streams, lagoons, or the ocean.

According to a 2014 World Bank report, the world’s total urban population reached an estimated 3.8 billion in 2013, and is projected to swell to nearly 6.3 billion in 2050, with an average growth of four per cent per annum in Sub-Saharan Africa (compared to an average of one per cent in North America, Europe and Central Asia). This urban population growth rate, without commensurate development in water management systems, poses a threat to human health and wellbeing and has immediate and long-term consequences.

About 1.8 million people die every year from diarrhoeal diseases (including cholera). Ninety per cent are children under five, mostly in developing countries. An estimated 88 per cent of diarrhoeal diseases are attributed to unsafe water supply, inadequate sanitation and hygiene.

Drone picture by GRID-Arendal/Rob Barnes

A report by Green Facts, an NGO, notes the amount of wastewater produced will keep increasing, while the infrastructure and management systems for water will remain inadequate.

Several African countries including Zambia, Uganda, and Kenya have put in place wastewater treatment systems which include on-site, off-site, and conventional treatment methods. Such facilities are largely non-existent in Nigeria, despite being the most populous country in Africa.

Nigeria also lacks a regulatory framework for wastewater management, which has led to situations where companies release their wastewater directly into water bodies such as rivers.

The Niger-Delta region of the country is a major site of oil development. Oil spills and exploration as well as industrial waste have made the fresh- and saltwater in the region uninhabitable for aquatic life forms such as fish, and unsafe for consumption by humans. This contributes to the wastewater crises in Nigeria and highlights the lack of adequate wastewater management systems.

In a recent interview, the water supply director in Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Benson Ajisegiri, revealed that there are no wastewater management laws in the country.

“The government has started thinking about ways of managing wastewater and this is captured in the 2017 water resources policy. The policy has some aspects devoted to issues of wastewater and if we implement it as contained in the policy, then it will be alright for the country”, according to Benson Ajisegiri.

He added that the government has agencies and departments that should supervise the effective discharge of wastewater but due to the absence of policy guidelines, those agencies are reluctant to ensure that wastewater is discharged appropriately.

Flood on Abuja Keffi express way. By Alex Abutu

Ayo Ogunlade, a policy analyst at the NGO WaterAid Nigeria, acknowledged that there are large challenges related to proper wastewater management. These challenges include insufficient infrastructure, poor operation and maintenance as well as underdeveloped uses of wastewater.

Ogunlade stressed the need for the development of a domestic waste market such as the agricultural sector for organic fertilizers, as well as the need to improve sanitation services by constructing new facilities for wastewater management and sewage treatment.

“There is need for wastewater treatment facilities for productive and integrated use such as production of energy, clean water and manure/liquid fertiliser,” Ogunlade noted.

Michael Ojo of WaterAid Nigeria has written that comprehensive and sustained wastewater management in combination with sanitation and hygiene, is central to improving human health, food security, economic development, jobs and, consequently, poverty reduction.

“The unregulated discharge of wastewater has far reaching implications for the health of aquatic ecosystems, which threatens the resilience of biodiversity and the ecosystem services on which human wellbeing depends”, Ojo added.

As it stands today, Nigeria does not consider wastewater management a priority but for how long can its current water resources last, in view of the envisaged huge population growth? There is keen interest to see how far the country can stretch its luck in the use of its water resources while neglecting wastewater management.

*Alex Abutu is a science journalist based in Nigeria.

This series of news articles is part of the Wastewater Management and Sanitation Provision in Africa Project, a partnership between the African Development Bank (AfDB), UN Environment and GRID-Arendal. The project is supported by the AfDB through its Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative (funded by the Governments of Burkina Faso, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Switzerland and the Netherlands), and the Multi-Donor Water Partnership Programme (funded by the Governments of Canada and Denmark). The project is also funded by the Government of Norway and UNEP, and technically supported by GRID-Arendal.

Waiting for the wastewater management crisis

Footnotes

Header photo: Flooded road in the Imo state. By Alex Abutu

more wastewater and sanitation stories

FootNotes

Header photo: Flooded road in the Imo state. By Alex Abutu

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