By Asma’u Ahmad
The Federal Government has advised Nigerians who drink borehole water to test the quality regularly to reduce its negative impact.
The Deputy Director, Water Quality Control and Sanitation, Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Mrs. Elizabeth Ugoh who stated this in an interview with newsmen in Abuja, said the ministry was working with the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), to enforce the National Standard for Drinking Water Quality toward ensuring the quality of water being supplied to the public.
“The ministry is calling on all Nigerians drinking water from borehole and other sources to regularly test their water in laboratories across the country to reduce consuming unwholesome water.
“We are also calling on borehole drillers to abide by the National Drilling Code of Practice”, she added.
According to her, six new laboratories are being constructed in the six geo-political zones by the Federal Government to improve water quality and standard in the country.
Mrs. Ugoh said that the six existing laboratories were inadequate due to the country’s large population.
“We have six operational laboratories; we are building additional six now. Our target is that each state will have one, so that all together, we will have 37 laboratories in the whole federation. In order to ascertain the quality of water consumed by the people, the need for more laboratories cannot be over emphasised.
“The laboratories take care of the chemical side of testing for water, the micro-biological side where the pathogens that cause diseases are discovered. When the physical aspects of water have been sorted out, the chemical aspect of it has to be taken care of by the laboratories”, she stressed.
The deputy director said when quality potable water is made available, most water-borne diseases would be reduced, saying they accounted for majority of tropical diseases in the country.
