In the second part of his report, KUNLE FALAYI takes on the Lagos State Water Corporation armed with the report of a chemical analysis done on a sample of the contaminated water which some Lagos residents drink oblivious of the dangers they face.
At Ijora-Badia, one of Lagos’ most notorious slums, living around dirt is obviously not strange to the residents. But the water they buy from vendors who get their supply from the Lagos State Water Corporation may be doing them more harm than good.
A sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation, which is Target 10 under Goal Seven of the Millennium Development Goals, continues to be an illusion to people like the residents of this area. According to the United Nations, at least 783 million people the world over lack access to clean water.
Our correspondent noticed that many residents of the Ijora-Badia community dispose of their human wastes in open sewers while most of the pipes laid by water vendors in the community pass through the same drains and sewers. Yet common cases of dysentery and diarrhoea among children of the community do not seem to be raising alarm bells.
Where dysentery is a ‘regular visitor’
After 28-year-old food vendor, Mrs. Khadijat Akibu, narrated how her son died in June 2014 after a bout of his ‘usual’ dysentery (published in the first part of this report last Saturday), a search for more families with similar cases revealed how common the disease is among the residents of the area.
Thirty-two-year-old hairdresser, Adunni Alimi, told our correspondent that she no longer saw it as a problem when her three-year-old daughter, Bisi, complained of dysentery because “it always comes and goes.”
She lives only about 30 yards away from Akibu, and there is no doubt that she and her family also use the same water supplied by water vendors in the area.
“Bisi had dysentery last in November. She has dysentery almost every three weeks but she recovers after we give her drugs. That is why we are not really worried,” Alimi said.
Initially, when her daughter started her usual frequent stooling, Bisi would take her to Grace and George Hospital, a private hospital in the area, but now, she simply goes to a drug store to buy Flagyl and Tetracycline anytime the bout sets in because she can’t afford to take her daughter to hospital all the time.
Does she think that the recurrent dysentery might have something to do with the water they drink in the house? Alimi, whose expression changed to one of confusion, answered that it could not be so.
“I know well that the water the vendors sell in Ijora-Badia come from the water corporation,” she said.
That was the same reaction Julius Aji, another resident of the area, gave when our correspondent was speaking with his wife.
His wife, Chinenye, had told our correspondent that they had to take their six-year-old son to the hospital when the dysentery he had on December 15, 2014 entered the third day without abating.
“That is the second time he would develop dysentery in the last four months. But this last one really frightened us because we went to buy the same drug that were prescribed during his last case and it just did not work,” Chinenye said.
“You reporters have come with your questions again. If we use borehole water, maybe I will agree that there is contamination. But we use water corporation water here,” Julius interjected when his wife was asked if they had ever worried that the water they use in the house might be contaminated.
But these families are just two of the many others who our correspondent spoke with and who admitted to battling recurrent cases of dysentery in Ijora-Badia.
However, dysentery is just a minor problem compared with the danger the analysis of the water taken in the area revealed.
At Ijora-Badia, one of Lagos’ most notorious slums, living around dirt is obviously not strange to the residents. But the water they buy from vendors who get their supply from the Lagos State Water Corporation may be doing them more harm than good.
A sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation, which is Target 10 under Goal Seven of the Millennium Development Goals, continues to be an illusion to people like the residents of this area. According to the United Nations, at least 783 million people the world over lack access to clean water.
Our correspondent noticed that many residents of the Ijora-Badia community dispose of their human wastes in open sewers while most of the pipes laid by water vendors in the community pass through the same drains and sewers. Yet common cases of dysentery and diarrhoea among children of the community do not seem to be raising alarm bells.
Where dysentery is a ‘regular visitor’
After 28-year-old food vendor, Mrs. Khadijat Akibu, narrated how her son died in June 2014 after a bout of his ‘usual’ dysentery (published in the first part of this report last Saturday), a search for more families with similar cases revealed how common the disease is among the residents of the area.
Thirty-two-year-old hairdresser, Adunni Alimi, told our correspondent that she no longer saw it as a problem when her three-year-old daughter, Bisi, complained of dysentery because “it always comes and goes.”
She lives only about 30 yards away from Akibu, and there is no doubt that she and her family also use the same water supplied by water vendors in the area.
“Bisi had dysentery last in November. She has dysentery almost every three weeks but she recovers after we give her drugs. That is why we are not really worried,” Alimi said.
Initially, when her daughter started her usual frequent stooling, Bisi would take her to Grace and George Hospital, a private hospital in the area, but now, she simply goes to a drug store to buy Flagyl and Tetracycline anytime the bout sets in because she can’t afford to take her daughter to hospital all the time.
Does she think that the recurrent dysentery might have something to do with the water they drink in the house? Alimi, whose expression changed to one of confusion, answered that it could not be so.
“I know well that the water the vendors sell in Ijora-Badia come from the water corporation,” she said.
That was the same reaction Julius Aji, another resident of the area, gave when our correspondent was speaking with his wife.
His wife, Chinenye, had told our correspondent that they had to take their six-year-old son to the hospital when the dysentery he had on December 15, 2014 entered the third day without abating.
“That is the second time he would develop dysentery in the last four months. But this last one really frightened us because we went to buy the same drug that were prescribed during his last case and it just did not work,” Chinenye said.
“You reporters have come with your questions again. If we use borehole water, maybe I will agree that there is contamination. But we use water corporation water here,” Julius interjected when his wife was asked if they had ever worried that the water they use in the house might be contaminated.
But these families are just two of the many others who our correspondent spoke with and who admitted to battling recurrent cases of dysentery in Ijora-Badia.
However, dysentery is just a minor problem compared with the danger the analysis of the water taken in the area revealed.
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