Do you know that Nigeria is ranked 20th on the Global Hunger Index? What this means is that about 65percent of Nigerians are food insecure and vulnerable to hunger and ill-health. Though a coterie of factors is involved in food cultivation, but the role of fertilizer (organic or inorganic) is great. Sadly findings have shown that fertilizer application is still dismal amongst farmers. Nigeria is said to require about 3.7million metric tones of fertilizer per annum but only one-third is used in the farms.
Nigeria’s rate of application of NPK is reported to be 13kg per hectare. The ugly implication is the heavy post harvest losses calculated at 50per cent for fruits and vegetables and 30per cent for root crops and tubers. The number of those using compost or inorganic manure is grossly unknown, yet the potential for human waste to complement or replace the chemical fertilizers are not really considered.
Interestingly, Nigeria’s policy guideline on excreta and sewage management (2005) prescribes amongst others for the promotion and adaptation of the by-products of sewage treatment in productive uses. This if practiced will benefit the population in many ways.
First, food security and poverty alleviation .In parts of Nigeria, particularly in rural Nigeria, rural people suffer from periodic famine due to drought, small plot size, soil erosion, poverty (inability to purchase sufficient food) and political factors. In urban areas, poor people also suffer from under nutrition due to poverty, although urban agriculture is a growing phenomenon. However, growing food for the immediate family within confined spaces is a challenge.
Human urine and feaces can be used in rural and urban areas to increase food security for all households, particularly the poor. These products can be used directly at the homestead level, in backyard gardens. Researchers have shown that about 1.5litres of undiluted urine can be used to fertilize 1 square meter of soil. 1.5 liters is the amount produced by one adult in one day.
People could collect their own urine and use it on backyard gardens to increase yields. However, the fertilizing effect of urine is said to work best in soil with high organic matter content and this can be increased by adding the humus from eco-toilets and garden composts.
In urban areas, the sanitized urine and feaces from eco-toilets can be used as a rich nutritious soil for planting in pots, and the urine can be used to fertilize the soil before planting and for continued fertilization of plants during growth. Vegetable and fruit crops grown using urine fertilization produces 2-10 times the amount of crop by weight as those grown in unfertilized, poor soil. If people use urine to grow vegetables and fruits, the increased production results in greater food security at virtually no cost. Instances abound in Burkina Faso.
Soil enriched with humus from human waste (faeces) holds water longer than soils not enriched with it. Research has also shown that plants grown in soils enriched with large amounts of humus require less watering and survive droughts better than plants grown in ordinary soils without this humus.
In times of drought as was recently experience in Yobe and Jigawa states in northern Nigeria, when whole fields of grain may die, backyard crops grown on humus may well survive and produce enough vegetables to help a family through a difficult period. If over time, families can collect enough humus from their eco-toilets, they may be able to enrich larger and larger areas, leading to increasing food security.
Second, cost saving for Nigerian farmers is another benefit. This is true because the formulation of nutrients in urine is similar but not exactly the same as that in commercial fertilizers. But urine and commercial fertilizers give similar results in boosting plant growth. Urine is high in nitrogen and lower in phosphorus and potassium. Some top-up of phosphorus and potassium is often needed to get the best possible use of nitrogen. As faeces and ash are high in phosphorus and potassium, farmers can replace commercial fertilizers with urine and top-up with sanitized faeces from eco-toilets at little or no extra cost.
A study in China calculated the cost savings of using urine and dried faecal humus from eco-toilets as a fertilizer in a 3000 square meter greenhouse owned by one farmer in Jilin Province of northern China. The farmer not only used the dried faeces from his household but also purchased additional dried faeces from other homes with eco-toilets and was given their urine free of charge.
He did not calculate the cost of transport of dried faeces (which was transported by tractor) or the cost of transporting urine, which was carried in buckets on shoulder poles. He used to buy 350-400kg commercial fertilizer per year, but now this has been replaced by the free urine. The farmer calculated his cost savings per year to be the equivalent of CNY 740 (USD90) per 1000 square meters.
Such calculations could become even more important at the community level, especially where farmers are struggling to make a living. A city of 100,000 people would produce about 500,000kg of elemental nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK) per year in excreta. While the cost of commercial fertilizer varies between countries, as does its content of elemental NPK, it is possible to make a rough cost comparison of buying elemental products or collecting and transporting locally produced urine and faeces.
Third; preventing nitrogen pollution of drinking water in our communities is another benefit. Pit toilets as well as sewers are frequently a source of ground water pollution, especially in areas where the water table is high such as Port Harcourt, Calabar and Lagos etc.
Urine is rich in nitrogen and up to 50% of the nitrogen leaches out of the pit toilet pass through the soil and reaches the groundwater. Water with NO3 concentrations higher than 50mg/liter is considered to be unfit for human consumption. It is not unusual to find such high concentrations of nitrogen in wells in communities with pit toilets.
Recommendations as those in Nigeria’s policy guidelines on excreta and sewage management (2005) that toilets be sited at least 30meters from wells are meant to protect well water from pollution, but plenty experience shows that soil conditions vary considerably and both pathogens and nitrogen pollution can still result.
Finally, restoring lost top soils could also be another great benefit. This is true because according to FAO, the Earth is losing 25billion tones of topsoil per year because of erosion. Chemical fertilizers, while boosting plant growth, cannot replace topsoil. Topsoil contains humus formed from decayed plant and animal matter, and is rich in carbon compounds and micro-organisms necessary for healthy plant growth, which are not found in chemical fertilizers.The addition of humus is therefore necessary to maintain and renew the topsoil. With the loss of topsoil comes the loss of human food security. In many parts of the world, people are experiencing reduced productivity on their lands due to loss of top soils.
Friday 4 September 2009
Media, Agriculture and Climate Change
By
Joachim Ezeji
http://blogs.worldbank.org/dmblog/team/joachim-ezeji
The strongest impacts of climate change in Africa are associated with rainfall and water availability; and agriculture in Africa is completely leaned on both hence its enormous vulnerability. An understanding therefore of how local communities perceive and consider changes occurring in their communities (such as water shortage) or how they interpret the climate crisis can help define strategies for appropriate responses and specific applications to reduce vulnerability to climatic variability and change. The questions to consider involve the inclusion of local knowledge in the definition and diffusion of long-term application of adaptation policies. As efforts to develop and diffuse adaptation mechanisms in Africa and elsewhere grow in momentum, one major constraint has been the failure to develop an effective communication strategy to drive the process.
Effective communication as a sub-set of development needs to be developed in order to get the message down to the bottom of the pyramid where those most affected i.e. the small holder farmers agglutinate. The concept of information in general, and of climate change adaptation information in particular, as a resource for effective adaptation and development, needs to be domesticated well beyond the current cozy confines of conference rooms and research hubs. Adaptation has been defined (AMMA, 2008) as a strategy of responses that aims to bring the potential impacts of climate change down to a minimum and reduce the negative effects for the lowest cost.
As such measures get developed, it becomes urgent to educate people including government officials, agricultural extension officers and farmers on what they are. Local policy makers, planners and administrators need to recognize that information is indispensable to the adaptation process. This is apparent with due cognizance of the fact that in most parts of Africa, the essential information mechanisms and infrastructural facilities are not yet sufficiently developed to foster the generation, storage, preservation, retrieval, dissemination and utilization of information. However, effective communication is seen as an essential tool for the establishment and maintenance of good social and working relationships and it enables people to exercise control over their environment. The purpose of communication is to bring about change of attitude, knowledge, skills and aspiration of the receivers.
In Nigeria, various communication media are commonly used to transmit all sorts of information to people. Some of these include magazines, leaflets, newsletters, newspapers, pamphlets, radio, internet, handset phones and television, among others. None of these media has proven excellent in this regard because of a number of factors, most salient though latent is that most of the journalists or program presenters are not experts in the field and often rely on what they read or where instructed/directed to do. Short term courses by journalist has not been effective in eclipsing this constraint. What has helped over the years are only where such journalists have been on that bit for years, hence pooling a great wealth of experience and exposure. As at today, many journalist in Africa are still at cross roads on the difference between mitigation and adaptation. You need to read their articles or stories to understand what I mean. Journalists need to have a background of good training at least to the University level in order to understand current dynamic global debates such as those on agriculture, Climate change and carbon trading etc. A three day training or conference participation in Brussels or Lagos cannot confer all that knowledge on them.
What I am suggesting in effect is that everybody should be and function as a media. Word of mouth is the best advert. Use issues as this as ice breakers and see what they know. Extension farmers still remains a veritable and useful tool. A combination of media, word of mouth and extension services is the best approach. In my organization, Rural Africa Water Development Project, a Nigerian NGO; we mainstreamed effective communication into many of our pro-poor programs. And one lesson we have learnt and which we always share is the fact that beyond stirring awareness, this has the extra benefit of building ownership and a high sense of community participation in the projects. People living in same community or in the same trade or profession should at least. freely share information within themselves.
An interesting study by Agwu et al (2008) in Nigeria sought to determine farmers’ adoption of improved agricultural technologies disseminated via radio farmer programme in Enugu State, Nigeria. The findings of this study revealed that major source of information on improved agricultural technologies to farmers were fellow farmers; then followed by radio programmes. A greater proportion (96.3%) accepted radio as a useful source of information on improved agricultural technologies. However, only 23.7% of the respondents were found to have listened to the radio farmer programme. The study further showed that the major relevant technologies disseminated were harvesting of yam and storage in barns and pest control in food crop farms.
The study also revealed that the radio farmer programme had little effect on enhancing adoption of improved technologies by the respondents. A greater proportion (56.3%) of the respondents were not satisfied with the radio farmer programme. Only age, farming experience and membership of farmers’ organization significantly influenced adoption of improved agricultural technologies disseminated through the radio while the major constraints to adoption of technologies include inappropriate scheduling of programme, inability to ask relevant questions and get the feedback from the radio presenter and language used in presenting the programme. Based on these findings, it was concluded that the present level of adoption of the improved agricultural technologies disseminated via radio farmer programme to farmers in Enugu state is low.
Finally, the media-newspapers, television, and radio- represent a special communication challenge to development. Approached wisely, the media may carry your story as you want it framed. Mishandle the media, on the other hand, your message may be publicly skewed. In engaging the media, you will need to identify the different segments of your audience and craft appropriate messages for each, and these include the local small holder farmers.
Joachim Ezeji
http://blogs.worldbank.org/dmblog/team/joachim-ezeji
The strongest impacts of climate change in Africa are associated with rainfall and water availability; and agriculture in Africa is completely leaned on both hence its enormous vulnerability. An understanding therefore of how local communities perceive and consider changes occurring in their communities (such as water shortage) or how they interpret the climate crisis can help define strategies for appropriate responses and specific applications to reduce vulnerability to climatic variability and change. The questions to consider involve the inclusion of local knowledge in the definition and diffusion of long-term application of adaptation policies. As efforts to develop and diffuse adaptation mechanisms in Africa and elsewhere grow in momentum, one major constraint has been the failure to develop an effective communication strategy to drive the process.
Effective communication as a sub-set of development needs to be developed in order to get the message down to the bottom of the pyramid where those most affected i.e. the small holder farmers agglutinate. The concept of information in general, and of climate change adaptation information in particular, as a resource for effective adaptation and development, needs to be domesticated well beyond the current cozy confines of conference rooms and research hubs. Adaptation has been defined (AMMA, 2008) as a strategy of responses that aims to bring the potential impacts of climate change down to a minimum and reduce the negative effects for the lowest cost.
As such measures get developed, it becomes urgent to educate people including government officials, agricultural extension officers and farmers on what they are. Local policy makers, planners and administrators need to recognize that information is indispensable to the adaptation process. This is apparent with due cognizance of the fact that in most parts of Africa, the essential information mechanisms and infrastructural facilities are not yet sufficiently developed to foster the generation, storage, preservation, retrieval, dissemination and utilization of information. However, effective communication is seen as an essential tool for the establishment and maintenance of good social and working relationships and it enables people to exercise control over their environment. The purpose of communication is to bring about change of attitude, knowledge, skills and aspiration of the receivers.
In Nigeria, various communication media are commonly used to transmit all sorts of information to people. Some of these include magazines, leaflets, newsletters, newspapers, pamphlets, radio, internet, handset phones and television, among others. None of these media has proven excellent in this regard because of a number of factors, most salient though latent is that most of the journalists or program presenters are not experts in the field and often rely on what they read or where instructed/directed to do. Short term courses by journalist has not been effective in eclipsing this constraint. What has helped over the years are only where such journalists have been on that bit for years, hence pooling a great wealth of experience and exposure. As at today, many journalist in Africa are still at cross roads on the difference between mitigation and adaptation. You need to read their articles or stories to understand what I mean. Journalists need to have a background of good training at least to the University level in order to understand current dynamic global debates such as those on agriculture, Climate change and carbon trading etc. A three day training or conference participation in Brussels or Lagos cannot confer all that knowledge on them.
What I am suggesting in effect is that everybody should be and function as a media. Word of mouth is the best advert. Use issues as this as ice breakers and see what they know. Extension farmers still remains a veritable and useful tool. A combination of media, word of mouth and extension services is the best approach. In my organization, Rural Africa Water Development Project, a Nigerian NGO; we mainstreamed effective communication into many of our pro-poor programs. And one lesson we have learnt and which we always share is the fact that beyond stirring awareness, this has the extra benefit of building ownership and a high sense of community participation in the projects. People living in same community or in the same trade or profession should at least. freely share information within themselves.
An interesting study by Agwu et al (2008) in Nigeria sought to determine farmers’ adoption of improved agricultural technologies disseminated via radio farmer programme in Enugu State, Nigeria. The findings of this study revealed that major source of information on improved agricultural technologies to farmers were fellow farmers; then followed by radio programmes. A greater proportion (96.3%) accepted radio as a useful source of information on improved agricultural technologies. However, only 23.7% of the respondents were found to have listened to the radio farmer programme. The study further showed that the major relevant technologies disseminated were harvesting of yam and storage in barns and pest control in food crop farms.
The study also revealed that the radio farmer programme had little effect on enhancing adoption of improved technologies by the respondents. A greater proportion (56.3%) of the respondents were not satisfied with the radio farmer programme. Only age, farming experience and membership of farmers’ organization significantly influenced adoption of improved agricultural technologies disseminated through the radio while the major constraints to adoption of technologies include inappropriate scheduling of programme, inability to ask relevant questions and get the feedback from the radio presenter and language used in presenting the programme. Based on these findings, it was concluded that the present level of adoption of the improved agricultural technologies disseminated via radio farmer programme to farmers in Enugu state is low.
Finally, the media-newspapers, television, and radio- represent a special communication challenge to development. Approached wisely, the media may carry your story as you want it framed. Mishandle the media, on the other hand, your message may be publicly skewed. In engaging the media, you will need to identify the different segments of your audience and craft appropriate messages for each, and these include the local small holder farmers.
Join me, become environmentally aware!
The fear of global warming is the biggest global environmental concern at the moment. Amongst other things, climate change causes polar ice caps to melt, dry season to be longer, rainy season to be late in coming, and when it comes to come with serious storms and flooding etc. We aid global warming every time we fly, use a car or when we use electrical appliances.
Cutting our impact on the environment is important. We can do this through the introduction of paper and plastic recycling bins as well as composting and use of Biogas. We may also calculate our carbon footprints. A carbon footprint is a measure of the amount of CO2 emitted in a year. An average person is said to emit 9400kg per year on carbon dioxide.
There is also need to reduce our reliance on and use of plastics. Using plastics means more plastic wastes. Sending these to landfills is a big problem too. Plastics are made from oil, a natural non-renewable product. Plastic is a non-biodegradable substance (which means that it will not decompose) and adds to the problem of the excess amounts of waste which are filling a landfill site; but in Nigeria, we don’t even have a landfill but dumpsites which are much more inferior.
For example; the amount of municipal trash collected in England in 2006/2007, the last period for which full figures are available, rose by 1.4 per cent; seven times more than the average so far this century, and to 28.7 million tons. Yet household rubbish makes up less than 330million tons of wastes being produced in Britain each year, and is dwarfed by the detritus from construction and demolition, mining, industry and commerce.
There is enormous need to recycle instead of sending wastes to landfill sites because landfill sites are almost full too. Example; paper recycling stops trees that have carbon ‘locked up in them’ being cut down. When a tree is cut down and with the availability of oxygen, it forms carbon dioxide, a green house gas- which is one of the contributors to climate change.
There is need to institute Green Flag Award for Nigerian Schools; Government Institutions and Companies. By this, every participating organization would be rated and measured on a green flag status. The green flag award as an accolade would therefore be awarded to sustainable organizations which have tried to reduce their negative impact upon the earth.
Do you know that used oil is any waste lubricant oil e.g. lubricant fluids that are placed in engines, gearboxes and hydraulic systems of machines e.g. cars and generators? Used lubricant oil is hazardous because it contains toxic compounds and harmful metallic dust particles that can be very dangerous to health. Spilled oil decomposes very slowly and remains in the environment for a long period, polluting the soil and water.
Recycling used motor oil keeps it out of rivers, lakes, streams and groundwater. In many cases, that also means keeping it out of our drinking water, off our beaches and away from wildlife. We all share the responsibility of protecting our environment and keeping our water safe. Recycling used oil allows us to continue to enjoy what many of us take for granted every day - clean water. If you recycle a liter of used oil, you can generate enough electricity to run the average household for almost 24hours. One liter of used oil can pollute a million liters of water.
There is need to scrap plastic bags and replace them with cotton alternatives in order to save the environment and encourage everybody to “go green”. You can make your neighborhood or village a plastic bag-free community. Cotton and Jute bags should be strategically re-introduced in our society. Doing so would help to reduce the number of plastic bags in circulation and support the environmental campaign whilst cutting costs. The plastic bags blow all over the place, even into fields where they can do a lot of damage to wildlife and livestock. It is time we cleaned up. It would be nice to see our city become “Plastic bag free”.
There is need to raise a campaign to highlight how environmentally unfriendly, problematic and –not least – how irritating the phenomenon of packaging and repackaging waste has become. Packaging presents a problem for several reasons. Firstly, it uses up huge volumes of natural resources: oil for plastic trays, bags and wrappers; trees for paper, cartons, and cardboard; aluminum for tins and cans; glass for jars and bottles. About 8% of global oil production is used to make plastic, which a quarter is thought to end up in packaging.
Secondly, climate change is hastened by the green house gas emissions from the energy used to make and transport containers. Thirdly, there is the problem of disposal. The packaging industry claims that, with the quadrupling of recycling rates in the past decade, 60% of packaging is now recycled; but even so, it admits that five million tons of it is dumped in holes in the ground.
In market research, stores have picked up packaging as one of the issues that grates with customers. The industry argues that, as products need to be protected in travelling to reach shops, under-packaging creates more wastes. But packaging performs another commercial function: it engages and entices the customer, and often exaggerates the size of the product. This is particularly noticeable in the rapidly growing trend for seasonal merchandise, whether for Christmas gifts or Easter candles. Today therefore is a key moment for deciding how we handle our waste products in the future, for two reasons;
Firstly, the government is advised to produce a national waste strategy. States and local councils would also have theirs. These would be the first in our history. I believe that new measures to force a cutback in packaging should be part of it. Secondly, most of the major supermarkets should begin to realize that they do have to act on packaging and should commit to tackle it.
For example, paper is a vital part of our daily lives, from the Newspapers we read to the ‘post –it-notes’ by the phone, our dairies and notebooks, the napkins we use at lunch times, our office stationary, till receipts, the book or glossy by our bed. It is not surprising, then, that the paper around us adds up to roughly 11million tons’ worth of potentially reusable waste each year. So if we all recycled diligently or bought recycled-paper goods, it could save up to 165 million trees being felled each year.
Recycling one tone of paper saves average-sized trees. Every tone of paper recycled saves: 30,000litres of water, 27kg of air pollutants and enough electricity to power a three-bedroom house for up to six months.
Hoping you join me on this campaign wherever you are!
Cutting our impact on the environment is important. We can do this through the introduction of paper and plastic recycling bins as well as composting and use of Biogas. We may also calculate our carbon footprints. A carbon footprint is a measure of the amount of CO2 emitted in a year. An average person is said to emit 9400kg per year on carbon dioxide.
There is also need to reduce our reliance on and use of plastics. Using plastics means more plastic wastes. Sending these to landfills is a big problem too. Plastics are made from oil, a natural non-renewable product. Plastic is a non-biodegradable substance (which means that it will not decompose) and adds to the problem of the excess amounts of waste which are filling a landfill site; but in Nigeria, we don’t even have a landfill but dumpsites which are much more inferior.
For example; the amount of municipal trash collected in England in 2006/2007, the last period for which full figures are available, rose by 1.4 per cent; seven times more than the average so far this century, and to 28.7 million tons. Yet household rubbish makes up less than 330million tons of wastes being produced in Britain each year, and is dwarfed by the detritus from construction and demolition, mining, industry and commerce.
There is enormous need to recycle instead of sending wastes to landfill sites because landfill sites are almost full too. Example; paper recycling stops trees that have carbon ‘locked up in them’ being cut down. When a tree is cut down and with the availability of oxygen, it forms carbon dioxide, a green house gas- which is one of the contributors to climate change.
There is need to institute Green Flag Award for Nigerian Schools; Government Institutions and Companies. By this, every participating organization would be rated and measured on a green flag status. The green flag award as an accolade would therefore be awarded to sustainable organizations which have tried to reduce their negative impact upon the earth.
Do you know that used oil is any waste lubricant oil e.g. lubricant fluids that are placed in engines, gearboxes and hydraulic systems of machines e.g. cars and generators? Used lubricant oil is hazardous because it contains toxic compounds and harmful metallic dust particles that can be very dangerous to health. Spilled oil decomposes very slowly and remains in the environment for a long period, polluting the soil and water.
Recycling used motor oil keeps it out of rivers, lakes, streams and groundwater. In many cases, that also means keeping it out of our drinking water, off our beaches and away from wildlife. We all share the responsibility of protecting our environment and keeping our water safe. Recycling used oil allows us to continue to enjoy what many of us take for granted every day - clean water. If you recycle a liter of used oil, you can generate enough electricity to run the average household for almost 24hours. One liter of used oil can pollute a million liters of water.
There is need to scrap plastic bags and replace them with cotton alternatives in order to save the environment and encourage everybody to “go green”. You can make your neighborhood or village a plastic bag-free community. Cotton and Jute bags should be strategically re-introduced in our society. Doing so would help to reduce the number of plastic bags in circulation and support the environmental campaign whilst cutting costs. The plastic bags blow all over the place, even into fields where they can do a lot of damage to wildlife and livestock. It is time we cleaned up. It would be nice to see our city become “Plastic bag free”.
There is need to raise a campaign to highlight how environmentally unfriendly, problematic and –not least – how irritating the phenomenon of packaging and repackaging waste has become. Packaging presents a problem for several reasons. Firstly, it uses up huge volumes of natural resources: oil for plastic trays, bags and wrappers; trees for paper, cartons, and cardboard; aluminum for tins and cans; glass for jars and bottles. About 8% of global oil production is used to make plastic, which a quarter is thought to end up in packaging.
Secondly, climate change is hastened by the green house gas emissions from the energy used to make and transport containers. Thirdly, there is the problem of disposal. The packaging industry claims that, with the quadrupling of recycling rates in the past decade, 60% of packaging is now recycled; but even so, it admits that five million tons of it is dumped in holes in the ground.
In market research, stores have picked up packaging as one of the issues that grates with customers. The industry argues that, as products need to be protected in travelling to reach shops, under-packaging creates more wastes. But packaging performs another commercial function: it engages and entices the customer, and often exaggerates the size of the product. This is particularly noticeable in the rapidly growing trend for seasonal merchandise, whether for Christmas gifts or Easter candles. Today therefore is a key moment for deciding how we handle our waste products in the future, for two reasons;
Firstly, the government is advised to produce a national waste strategy. States and local councils would also have theirs. These would be the first in our history. I believe that new measures to force a cutback in packaging should be part of it. Secondly, most of the major supermarkets should begin to realize that they do have to act on packaging and should commit to tackle it.
For example, paper is a vital part of our daily lives, from the Newspapers we read to the ‘post –it-notes’ by the phone, our dairies and notebooks, the napkins we use at lunch times, our office stationary, till receipts, the book or glossy by our bed. It is not surprising, then, that the paper around us adds up to roughly 11million tons’ worth of potentially reusable waste each year. So if we all recycled diligently or bought recycled-paper goods, it could save up to 165 million trees being felled each year.
Recycling one tone of paper saves average-sized trees. Every tone of paper recycled saves: 30,000litres of water, 27kg of air pollutants and enough electricity to power a three-bedroom house for up to six months.
Hoping you join me on this campaign wherever you are!
Regulating to revive water supply in urban Nigeria
By
Joachim Ezeji
Perhaps, in recognition of the importance of water resources management for the economic development of Nigeria and the well-being of its citizens, the government took a number of initiatives related to water resources policy in the latter part of the 1990s, which ultimately led to present day discussions on revision of the water law. These included development of a set of key water resources principles that were circulated initially in 1998 for review by approximately 100 representatives of government agencies, academics and other water specialists; a World Bank sponsored study, concluded in 2001, that included specialist reports on the legal and regulatory framework, institutions and trans-boundary waters, various drafts of a water policy culminating in the 2004 National Water Policy, and the EU funded report on Water Resources Management and Policy etc.
Progress was being made in other water-related areas during the same period. A National Water Supply and Sanitation Policy was drafted in 2000 (FMWR, 2000) which, although currently under review, incorporates a number of principles for which water resources policy and law needs to provide the framework. In 2006, a draft Irrigation Policy was prepared that draws on the principles of the National Water Policy. At State level, a model Water Supply Services Regulatory Law has been prepared in association with the World Bank-supported WIMAG initiative, (Water Investment Mobilization and Applications Guidelines). It provides a basis for water supply reform legislation including establishment of State Water Regulatory Commissions and licensing procedures for water service providers. It is anticipated that most states will adopt such legislation, adapted to their individual contexts as required. In relation to natural resources and the environment, a national policy on the Environment was formulated in 1999 that provided for sustainable development based on proper management of the environment and in 2006 a second reading of a Bill to establish the National Environmental Standards Enforcement Agency (NASEA) went through the National Assembly.
But, in view of all the foregoing, it is germane to understand what influence the regulation of water utility performance would have on poverty alleviation. This could be viewed from the perspectives of legislative reform in urban utilities in order to achieve a new institutional framework for it, defining functions and powers of the institutions; to license water use, regulate operations, and monitor compliance etc. This has been predicated on the premise that in Nigeria, all the 36 State Governments and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have each set up a State Water Supply Agency (SWA) charged with the responsibility of providing potable water supply to the urban and in some cases their semi urban communities but that sad tales of high operational costs, poor revenue, epileptic power supply, inadequate funding, ill-motivated personnel, aging plants and machineries have remained the undoing of these utilities. The consequence is that many Nigerians lack sustainable access to clean drinking water, and those for productive activities. The tragedy in all these is such that if sustainable water supply is a ladder in economic development with higher rungs representing steps up the path to economic well being, there are roughly 80% of households, three-quarter of Nigerians, who live lacking support to get a foot on the first rung of the development ladder.
A typical case is the Lagos State Water Corporation. Here, the water distribution network can only reach one in every three of the 15 million inhabitants of the city. Yet, they projected population growth of 4% per annum of the city means that the city’s water demand, will double by the year 2020. The cost of meeting current and projected demand has been put at around $2.5 billion over the next 20 years.A World Bank 2003 report had stressed how the abysmal performance of public utilities has come to symbolize the poorest aspects of governance in Nigeria. Using Lagos as a reference the report revealed that being neglected and close to collapse, the publicly run Lagos State Water Corporation holds the dubious distinction of having the highest recorded level of unaccounted-for-water in the world. Only 4 percent of its water production capacity goes towards the creation of revenue.
Unaccounted-for-water is the most common measure of the efficiency of a water company. The World Bank defines it as “the difference between the quantity of water supplied to a network and the metered water by the customer” It has two components; physical losses due to leakage from pipes; and administrative losses due to illegal connections and under registration of water meters. For any water utility to maintain or restore a lead to consumers on water efficiency, it must get on top of its leakage problems. Leakage by water companies in England and Wales fell by around 20 million liters a day (ml/d) in 2005/06 because of strict regulation by the Office for Water (OFWAT); its official regulator. The overall leakage in England and Wales was close to 3,600ml/d in 2006 compared to nearly 5,000 ml/d just a decade earlier. OFWAT took action that required a utility like Thames Water to make a substantial reduction in leakage, and the company entered into a legally binding agreement with the regulator (OFWAT), committing it to spend GPB150million of its own money to step up the program of water mains replacement. It also risks being fined if it does not meet its future leakage targets.
But in an ailing economy such as Nigeria’s where the Gross National Index is US$560 (World Bank, 2006), no authority actually regulates the urban water utilities. Yet, over 70% of the populations are poor and well over 50% of them live in the cities, and depend on these utilities for their daily water needs. I will therefore suggest that a review of a recent document put in place by consultants for the Federal Government of Nigeria in this context is desired. This model water supply services regulatory law has been prepared in association with the World-Bank supported Water Investment Mobilization and Applications Guidelines (WIMAG). WIMAG provides a basis for water supply reform legislation including the establishment of State Water Regulatory Commission and licensing procedures for all water service providers. It provides an equitable approach to water pricing in Nigeria.
In tandem with the Nigerian National Water and Sanitation Policy (2000) and the National Water Resources Bill (2007), WIMAG and the model State Water Supply Services Regulatory Law (WSSRL) insists that each state of the federation with a State Water Agency (SWA) must establish a regulatory commission that is empowered to issue licenses for the provision of water supply services by both government and private sector entities; define minimum service requirement; set tariffs; define rights and obligations of the water service providers; and define performance standards.
Further to the foregoing, States are to ensure that water service providers are autonomous bodies subject to regulation by the state regulatory commission; and that the regulatory commission is not subject to the direction or control of the state governor or any other person in respect of any determination, report or inquiry; and that the sector is structured to prevent misuse of monopoly power. Above all, WIMAG demands that Nigerian States should incorporate principles of good governance into the structure and operational procedures of state water agencies, particularly; equity, accountability, efficiency, transparency and public participation. States are also required to establish appeals mechanisms for decisions taken by water service providers under their jurisdiction.
The likely influence of the WIMAG document on utility performance and poverty alleviation in Nigeria need to be further explored under this premise; in addition to comparing it with those of organizations such as OFWAT and the Environmental Agency in the UK. I think that doing this will support age long efforts to revive many of Nigeria’s ailing water utilities.
Joachim Ezeji
Perhaps, in recognition of the importance of water resources management for the economic development of Nigeria and the well-being of its citizens, the government took a number of initiatives related to water resources policy in the latter part of the 1990s, which ultimately led to present day discussions on revision of the water law. These included development of a set of key water resources principles that were circulated initially in 1998 for review by approximately 100 representatives of government agencies, academics and other water specialists; a World Bank sponsored study, concluded in 2001, that included specialist reports on the legal and regulatory framework, institutions and trans-boundary waters, various drafts of a water policy culminating in the 2004 National Water Policy, and the EU funded report on Water Resources Management and Policy etc.
Progress was being made in other water-related areas during the same period. A National Water Supply and Sanitation Policy was drafted in 2000 (FMWR, 2000) which, although currently under review, incorporates a number of principles for which water resources policy and law needs to provide the framework. In 2006, a draft Irrigation Policy was prepared that draws on the principles of the National Water Policy. At State level, a model Water Supply Services Regulatory Law has been prepared in association with the World Bank-supported WIMAG initiative, (Water Investment Mobilization and Applications Guidelines). It provides a basis for water supply reform legislation including establishment of State Water Regulatory Commissions and licensing procedures for water service providers. It is anticipated that most states will adopt such legislation, adapted to their individual contexts as required. In relation to natural resources and the environment, a national policy on the Environment was formulated in 1999 that provided for sustainable development based on proper management of the environment and in 2006 a second reading of a Bill to establish the National Environmental Standards Enforcement Agency (NASEA) went through the National Assembly.
But, in view of all the foregoing, it is germane to understand what influence the regulation of water utility performance would have on poverty alleviation. This could be viewed from the perspectives of legislative reform in urban utilities in order to achieve a new institutional framework for it, defining functions and powers of the institutions; to license water use, regulate operations, and monitor compliance etc. This has been predicated on the premise that in Nigeria, all the 36 State Governments and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have each set up a State Water Supply Agency (SWA) charged with the responsibility of providing potable water supply to the urban and in some cases their semi urban communities but that sad tales of high operational costs, poor revenue, epileptic power supply, inadequate funding, ill-motivated personnel, aging plants and machineries have remained the undoing of these utilities. The consequence is that many Nigerians lack sustainable access to clean drinking water, and those for productive activities. The tragedy in all these is such that if sustainable water supply is a ladder in economic development with higher rungs representing steps up the path to economic well being, there are roughly 80% of households, three-quarter of Nigerians, who live lacking support to get a foot on the first rung of the development ladder.
A typical case is the Lagos State Water Corporation. Here, the water distribution network can only reach one in every three of the 15 million inhabitants of the city. Yet, they projected population growth of 4% per annum of the city means that the city’s water demand, will double by the year 2020. The cost of meeting current and projected demand has been put at around $2.5 billion over the next 20 years.A World Bank 2003 report had stressed how the abysmal performance of public utilities has come to symbolize the poorest aspects of governance in Nigeria. Using Lagos as a reference the report revealed that being neglected and close to collapse, the publicly run Lagos State Water Corporation holds the dubious distinction of having the highest recorded level of unaccounted-for-water in the world. Only 4 percent of its water production capacity goes towards the creation of revenue.
Unaccounted-for-water is the most common measure of the efficiency of a water company. The World Bank defines it as “the difference between the quantity of water supplied to a network and the metered water by the customer” It has two components; physical losses due to leakage from pipes; and administrative losses due to illegal connections and under registration of water meters. For any water utility to maintain or restore a lead to consumers on water efficiency, it must get on top of its leakage problems. Leakage by water companies in England and Wales fell by around 20 million liters a day (ml/d) in 2005/06 because of strict regulation by the Office for Water (OFWAT); its official regulator. The overall leakage in England and Wales was close to 3,600ml/d in 2006 compared to nearly 5,000 ml/d just a decade earlier. OFWAT took action that required a utility like Thames Water to make a substantial reduction in leakage, and the company entered into a legally binding agreement with the regulator (OFWAT), committing it to spend GPB150million of its own money to step up the program of water mains replacement. It also risks being fined if it does not meet its future leakage targets.
But in an ailing economy such as Nigeria’s where the Gross National Index is US$560 (World Bank, 2006), no authority actually regulates the urban water utilities. Yet, over 70% of the populations are poor and well over 50% of them live in the cities, and depend on these utilities for their daily water needs. I will therefore suggest that a review of a recent document put in place by consultants for the Federal Government of Nigeria in this context is desired. This model water supply services regulatory law has been prepared in association with the World-Bank supported Water Investment Mobilization and Applications Guidelines (WIMAG). WIMAG provides a basis for water supply reform legislation including the establishment of State Water Regulatory Commission and licensing procedures for all water service providers. It provides an equitable approach to water pricing in Nigeria.
In tandem with the Nigerian National Water and Sanitation Policy (2000) and the National Water Resources Bill (2007), WIMAG and the model State Water Supply Services Regulatory Law (WSSRL) insists that each state of the federation with a State Water Agency (SWA) must establish a regulatory commission that is empowered to issue licenses for the provision of water supply services by both government and private sector entities; define minimum service requirement; set tariffs; define rights and obligations of the water service providers; and define performance standards.
Further to the foregoing, States are to ensure that water service providers are autonomous bodies subject to regulation by the state regulatory commission; and that the regulatory commission is not subject to the direction or control of the state governor or any other person in respect of any determination, report or inquiry; and that the sector is structured to prevent misuse of monopoly power. Above all, WIMAG demands that Nigerian States should incorporate principles of good governance into the structure and operational procedures of state water agencies, particularly; equity, accountability, efficiency, transparency and public participation. States are also required to establish appeals mechanisms for decisions taken by water service providers under their jurisdiction.
The likely influence of the WIMAG document on utility performance and poverty alleviation in Nigeria need to be further explored under this premise; in addition to comparing it with those of organizations such as OFWAT and the Environmental Agency in the UK. I think that doing this will support age long efforts to revive many of Nigeria’s ailing water utilities.
Understanding Access to water!
By
Joachim Ezeji
Water supply services has been defined (Van Koppen, 2006) as the provision of water of a given quality and quantity with a given reliability at a given time. This definition emphasizes the outputs; what people receive, rather than the inputs: the hardware (or technology, or schemes; all used interchangeably) and the software (skills, capacities and institutions required to manage hardware and water resources) that are implied in terms such as “water supply system” or “irrigation scheme”.
According to Van Koppen (2006; 19) a water service should have the following three features in order to effect multiple uses; A service should be reliable and constant or, for seasonal uses, predictable. A service implies the existence of (public, private or, more commonly, combined) service providers, and service users; and of agreed or formalized relationships between them. It also implies specialization and separation of roles, responsibilities and relationships among a range of actors from the national to the local level.
There are a wide range of functions necessary to ensure that a service is sustainable, and an equally wide range of actors (government, NGOs, CBOs, private companies, ranging from an individual village bailiff to a large water company or utility) who may take on some or all of these roles.
A survey of access to water and sanitation in 37 small towns (one per state) done in 1997 by Federal Ministry of Water Resources Nigeria in preparation of their National Small Towns Water Supply and Sanitation Programme (STWSSP), reveals that no more than 5% of the Nigerian population access water from protected boreholes while 13% used water from communal wells.
The small towns have been largely ignored by the SWAs, and the gap is filled by private, informal arrangements such as tankers, privately-owned wells, and hand-carried water containers where residents of these small towns end up paying unit rates for water which is 10 to 20 times higher than those with access to public sector services.
For example, charges in small towns in Akwa Ibom and Imo States, Nigeria range from 1000 to 2500 Naira/m3, compared to about 41 Naira/m3 charged by the water utility in Lagos city. Health implications of water supply deficiencies in parts of Nigeria are enormous. As the percentage of people with access to safe water in the country is low, and the country is relatively densely populated, the direct health repercussion the situation imposes, especially on children, is often underestimated.
Improving water supply infrastructure will help improve the social well-being of the population directly. From an economic policy and strategic standpoint, it is unlikely that any other sector could have a larger, more substantial, and immediate impact on poverty reduction in Nigeria. If the ultimate and final objective of poverty reduction is to be achieved, the water sector will need to be the driving force of these changes. Not lessening the importance of any other sectoral investments, the consequences of a substantial increase in water supply investment on widespread water borne mortality and morbidity, is likely to be significant.
According to the WHO/UNICEF JMP Report 2008; 87 per cent of the world’s current population uses drinking water from improved sources. Out of this total figure; 54 per cent uses a piped connection in their dwelling, plot or yard, and 33 per cent uses other improved drinking water sources. This translates into 5.7 billion people worldwide who are now using drinking water from an improved source, an increase of 1.6 billion since 1990. About 3.6 billion people use a piped connection that provides running water in or near their homes.
However, estimates for 2006 as reported in this report show that the population reliant on unimproved drinking water sources is below one billion, and now stands at 884 million. Improved drinking water coverage in sub-Saharan Africa is still considerably lower than in other regions. Nevertheless, it has increased from 49 per cent in 1990 to 58 per cent in 2006, which means that an additional 207 million Africans are now using safe drinking water while 42 per cent are using unsafe or unimproved water sources.
The world is on track to meet
Unimproved drinking water sources according to the JMP include; unprotected dug well, unprotected spring,cart with small tank/drum, tanker truck, and surface water (river, dam, lake, pond, stream, canal, irrigation channels),and bottled water etc while other improved drinking water sources include Public taps or standpipes, tube wells or boreholes, protected dug wells, protected springs and rainwater collection. Piped water on premises i.e. piped household water connection located inside the user’s dwelling; plot or yard is described as most improved by JMP by virtue of its position on the JMP 2008 drinking water ladder. Water is divided into three categories, which are illustrated in the form of a ‘drinking water ladder’ similar to that developed for sanitation.
The category ‘improved drinking water sources’ includes sources that, by nature of their construction or through active intervention, are protected from outside contamination, particularly faecal matter. These include piped water in a dwelling, plot or yard, and other improved sources.
However and beyond all these concerns, are other concerns of Accessibility, Affordability and Sufficiency of water. According to the UNHABITAT as quoted by Alabaster (2008); Accessibility means obtaining water by the households without taking undue proportion of the household’s time (less than one hour a day) for the minimum sufficient quantity of at least 20 liters per person per day. Affordability means water not taking undue proportion of a household’s income i.e. less than 10 percent. Sufficiency means water being available at a quantity of at least 20 liters per person per day.
Therefore, a household have access to improved water sources if it has sufficient amount of water for family use, at an affordable price, available to household members without being subject to excessive physical effort and time. According to Alabaster (2008); access to water decreases when quantity, cost and burden of fetching water is considered.
This was corroborated by the Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) of WHO/UNICEF 2008 report which notes that when drinking water is not available in the home or close to it, the time taken to collect water (that is, to go to the source, stand in line, fill water containers and return home) is critical in determining whether a household can obtain enough water for drinking, food preparation and personal hygiene.
JMP 2008 further underscores that studies have found that if the time spent collecting drinking water is between 3 and 30 minutes, the amount collected is fairly constant and suitable to meet basic needs – defined as between 15 and 25 liters per person per day. However, if the total time taken per round trip exceeds 30 minutes, people tend to collect less water, thus compromising their basic drinking water needs.
The JMP 2008 also notes that the MDG indicator does not include a measure for time taken to collect water. However, some argue that, because it is a factor in drinking water use, the time needed to collect water should be considered when determining whether a source is ‘improved’ or not. Data from 35 recent household surveys show that 18 per cent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa relies on an improved drinking water source that is more than 30 minutes away.
Joachim Ezeji
Water supply services has been defined (Van Koppen, 2006) as the provision of water of a given quality and quantity with a given reliability at a given time. This definition emphasizes the outputs; what people receive, rather than the inputs: the hardware (or technology, or schemes; all used interchangeably) and the software (skills, capacities and institutions required to manage hardware and water resources) that are implied in terms such as “water supply system” or “irrigation scheme”.
According to Van Koppen (2006; 19) a water service should have the following three features in order to effect multiple uses; A service should be reliable and constant or, for seasonal uses, predictable. A service implies the existence of (public, private or, more commonly, combined) service providers, and service users; and of agreed or formalized relationships between them. It also implies specialization and separation of roles, responsibilities and relationships among a range of actors from the national to the local level.
There are a wide range of functions necessary to ensure that a service is sustainable, and an equally wide range of actors (government, NGOs, CBOs, private companies, ranging from an individual village bailiff to a large water company or utility) who may take on some or all of these roles.
A survey of access to water and sanitation in 37 small towns (one per state) done in 1997 by Federal Ministry of Water Resources Nigeria in preparation of their National Small Towns Water Supply and Sanitation Programme (STWSSP), reveals that no more than 5% of the Nigerian population access water from protected boreholes while 13% used water from communal wells.
The small towns have been largely ignored by the SWAs, and the gap is filled by private, informal arrangements such as tankers, privately-owned wells, and hand-carried water containers where residents of these small towns end up paying unit rates for water which is 10 to 20 times higher than those with access to public sector services.
For example, charges in small towns in Akwa Ibom and Imo States, Nigeria range from 1000 to 2500 Naira/m3, compared to about 41 Naira/m3 charged by the water utility in Lagos city. Health implications of water supply deficiencies in parts of Nigeria are enormous. As the percentage of people with access to safe water in the country is low, and the country is relatively densely populated, the direct health repercussion the situation imposes, especially on children, is often underestimated.
Improving water supply infrastructure will help improve the social well-being of the population directly. From an economic policy and strategic standpoint, it is unlikely that any other sector could have a larger, more substantial, and immediate impact on poverty reduction in Nigeria. If the ultimate and final objective of poverty reduction is to be achieved, the water sector will need to be the driving force of these changes. Not lessening the importance of any other sectoral investments, the consequences of a substantial increase in water supply investment on widespread water borne mortality and morbidity, is likely to be significant.
According to the WHO/UNICEF JMP Report 2008; 87 per cent of the world’s current population uses drinking water from improved sources. Out of this total figure; 54 per cent uses a piped connection in their dwelling, plot or yard, and 33 per cent uses other improved drinking water sources. This translates into 5.7 billion people worldwide who are now using drinking water from an improved source, an increase of 1.6 billion since 1990. About 3.6 billion people use a piped connection that provides running water in or near their homes.
However, estimates for 2006 as reported in this report show that the population reliant on unimproved drinking water sources is below one billion, and now stands at 884 million. Improved drinking water coverage in sub-Saharan Africa is still considerably lower than in other regions. Nevertheless, it has increased from 49 per cent in 1990 to 58 per cent in 2006, which means that an additional 207 million Africans are now using safe drinking water while 42 per cent are using unsafe or unimproved water sources.
The world is on track to meet
Unimproved drinking water sources according to the JMP include; unprotected dug well, unprotected spring,cart with small tank/drum, tanker truck, and surface water (river, dam, lake, pond, stream, canal, irrigation channels),and bottled water etc while other improved drinking water sources include Public taps or standpipes, tube wells or boreholes, protected dug wells, protected springs and rainwater collection. Piped water on premises i.e. piped household water connection located inside the user’s dwelling; plot or yard is described as most improved by JMP by virtue of its position on the JMP 2008 drinking water ladder. Water is divided into three categories, which are illustrated in the form of a ‘drinking water ladder’ similar to that developed for sanitation.
The category ‘improved drinking water sources’ includes sources that, by nature of their construction or through active intervention, are protected from outside contamination, particularly faecal matter. These include piped water in a dwelling, plot or yard, and other improved sources.
However and beyond all these concerns, are other concerns of Accessibility, Affordability and Sufficiency of water. According to the UNHABITAT as quoted by Alabaster (2008); Accessibility means obtaining water by the households without taking undue proportion of the household’s time (less than one hour a day) for the minimum sufficient quantity of at least 20 liters per person per day. Affordability means water not taking undue proportion of a household’s income i.e. less than 10 percent. Sufficiency means water being available at a quantity of at least 20 liters per person per day.
Therefore, a household have access to improved water sources if it has sufficient amount of water for family use, at an affordable price, available to household members without being subject to excessive physical effort and time. According to Alabaster (2008); access to water decreases when quantity, cost and burden of fetching water is considered.
This was corroborated by the Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) of WHO/UNICEF 2008 report which notes that when drinking water is not available in the home or close to it, the time taken to collect water (that is, to go to the source, stand in line, fill water containers and return home) is critical in determining whether a household can obtain enough water for drinking, food preparation and personal hygiene.
JMP 2008 further underscores that studies have found that if the time spent collecting drinking water is between 3 and 30 minutes, the amount collected is fairly constant and suitable to meet basic needs – defined as between 15 and 25 liters per person per day. However, if the total time taken per round trip exceeds 30 minutes, people tend to collect less water, thus compromising their basic drinking water needs.
The JMP 2008 also notes that the MDG indicator does not include a measure for time taken to collect water. However, some argue that, because it is a factor in drinking water use, the time needed to collect water should be considered when determining whether a source is ‘improved’ or not. Data from 35 recent household surveys show that 18 per cent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa relies on an improved drinking water source that is more than 30 minutes away.
Joachim Ezeji named Watson Scholar 2009
Joachim Ezeji named Watson Scholar 2009
Joachim Ibeziako Ezeji, has been appointed to work with Brown University professors and undergraduates under the auspices of the Watson International Scholars of the Environment Program, a mid-career training program.
Mr. Ezeji, a social enterpreneuer and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerian NGO- Rural Africa Water Development Project (RAWDP) has already arrived Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island USA to assume the role. Other African scholars so honoured include; Kawsu Jammeh (Gambia), Cyrille Ngouana Kengne (Cameroon), Gaudensia Aomo Owino (Kenya), Hilary Kakamwesiga (Uganda), Mwangi Githiru (Kenya), Susan Keitumetse (Botswana), Oluseun Sunday Olubode (Nigeria), and Jane Nagayi Kalule Yawe (Uganda).
According to Brown Associate Professor of History Nancy Jacobs, the 2009 Watson scholar’s program’s comparative focus capitalizes on the broad range of expertise of these scholars and creates opportunities to forge a network with both African and American environmental leaders which will enable these Watson Scholars to apply strategies practiced elsewhere to their home countries.
‘’The global problems of climate change and resource scarcity have unique implications in a continent with Africa’s political, economic, and cultural history’’ Jacob said. Historical study can improve understanding of environmental problems and ways to address them. Ultimately, stepping back and adopting a historical perspective will help the Watson Scholars understand why some individuals in Africa have resisted environmental education and research. Program participants will in turn be better prepared to confront barriers to implementation of environmental programs, Jacob said, adding that ‘’history can help them understand everyone’s stake.
Mr. Ezeji, a member of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) and the Society Exploration Geophysicist (SEG), has a Master of Science degree in Water and Environmental Management from Loughborough University, UK and a Bachelors in Geology. He is currently doing a research in climate change adaptation in the water supply services and food security .
Joachim Ibeziako Ezeji, has been appointed to work with Brown University professors and undergraduates under the auspices of the Watson International Scholars of the Environment Program, a mid-career training program.
Mr. Ezeji, a social enterpreneuer and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerian NGO- Rural Africa Water Development Project (RAWDP) has already arrived Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island USA to assume the role. Other African scholars so honoured include; Kawsu Jammeh (Gambia), Cyrille Ngouana Kengne (Cameroon), Gaudensia Aomo Owino (Kenya), Hilary Kakamwesiga (Uganda), Mwangi Githiru (Kenya), Susan Keitumetse (Botswana), Oluseun Sunday Olubode (Nigeria), and Jane Nagayi Kalule Yawe (Uganda).
According to Brown Associate Professor of History Nancy Jacobs, the 2009 Watson scholar’s program’s comparative focus capitalizes on the broad range of expertise of these scholars and creates opportunities to forge a network with both African and American environmental leaders which will enable these Watson Scholars to apply strategies practiced elsewhere to their home countries.
‘’The global problems of climate change and resource scarcity have unique implications in a continent with Africa’s political, economic, and cultural history’’ Jacob said. Historical study can improve understanding of environmental problems and ways to address them. Ultimately, stepping back and adopting a historical perspective will help the Watson Scholars understand why some individuals in Africa have resisted environmental education and research. Program participants will in turn be better prepared to confront barriers to implementation of environmental programs, Jacob said, adding that ‘’history can help them understand everyone’s stake.
Mr. Ezeji, a member of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) and the Society Exploration Geophysicist (SEG), has a Master of Science degree in Water and Environmental Management from Loughborough University, UK and a Bachelors in Geology. He is currently doing a research in climate change adaptation in the water supply services and food security .
In tacit support of ASUU
I still remember my days at the University of Calabar between 1993 and 1997. I remember those day just like yesterday. That period was one of the periods with overbearing incidents of the Academic Staff of Nigerian Universities Union (ASUU) strikes.
Then, names such as Dr. Attahiru Jega, Prof Ben Nwabueze, Dr Iyorchia Ayu and General Abacha were common and synonymous with strikes of those days. While Dr. Jega and Dr Iyorchia Ayu were at different times National Presidents of ASUU; Professor Nwabueze was the Education Minister.
At some point the Universities were shut for almost one academic year because of the intransigence of the Federal Government (FG). While the students’ lost a whole academic year, critical learning facilities in the universities were vandalised and looted, and ASUU members were bullied and some were out rightly sacked. Some of the lecturers that had the means left the system.
The government promoted the propaganda that ASUU was unkind to suffering students hence whipping up sentiments amongst parents. Yet, the same government was unable to address the remote cause of the strikes as the strikes came in series in 1993, 1994, 1995 and 1996. If it was not ASUU; it would be NASU or a combination of the two.
Why have ASUU strikes refused to go away? Counting from 1993, it is well over 10 years, yet the situation and circumstances that give rise to these nauseating strikes are still endemic, why? Then, people had the illusion that those issues persisted because of the intransigence of the ruling military junta. Today, the raw deal from politicians baffles all and tends to make less heinous the evil deeds of the military. So, why ASUU strike in a democracy?
Perhaps, the problem persists because the government does not understand the critical role of universities in governance or that politicians learnt nothing from events of the 1990’s.Tail or head, the central matter in this whole ASUU-FG debacle is the Nigerian University. The sole casualty is the university and all that it represents. There could be related casualties, and these are the students, parents, academic staff of universities and small scale businesses that operate or rely on the running of the universities to thrive.
People or groups who argue that ASUU should return to classrooms for the sake of Nigerian students are either ignorant of the core issues or are simply being mischievous. It should be noted that students, though cardinal components of the universities are dependent on the system to a greater extent than the system on them. If the system is ill-equipped or malfunctioning, it tells on the students.
I am of the view that two principal forces are often at play in every university, and these are the financier (government, the private sector and donors etc ), and the driver(the lecturers and the administrators). No doubt, students are also players but they are not principal players as they neither fund the system nor run it. Students are merely recipients of knowledge and are in most cases on transit. Students hardly influences the system but the system does influence the students; a case of ‘’soldier come, soldier go, barrack remains’’ . The resilience of the barrack to meet the all time demands of the soldiers is now the issue.
Globally, great universities such as the Ivy leagues universities in the USA, despite the high tuition paid by their students rely on far greater extent on external funds from the private sector and the government to thrive. Students’ tuition is incapable of carrying any university. So, raising tuition in Nigerian universities is incapable of solving the problem.
Therefore, when the kernel of the matter is deferred in order to allow students to just attend overcrowded lectures in poorly ventilated and hot lecture halls or for groups and sets of students to enrol into or graduate from universities, greater harm is being unleashed on the university.
It is this scenario that have kept Nigerian universities in this sorry pass of strikes upon strikes over the years. Often, parents are just too selfish to have their wards to just get on with the situation and graduate. The same applies to the students, who often want to graduate and be free from the system. By so doing, the cycle continues thus exacerbating the rot .Even at that where are the students graduating into; a hapless and frustrating Nigerian society.
Those who lampoon ASUU should bother to link or trace the remote cause of so much unemployment and the do or die jingo of securing a job to this creeping national problem we have in Nigerian universities. But, if Nigerians needs to be reminded; unemployment in Nigeria to a large extent reflect the rot in the Nigerian universities.
As at today, most Nigerian graduates lack basic skills such as those in computer use, essay writing, PowerPoint presentations and even poster design or how to use the GIS or GPS etc. Conversely, these are common skills in universities elsewhere where the system works. Fix the Nigerian university system and see the reflection on the larger society.
To a large extent, I am of the thinking that Nigerian government, both the federal and state are not really ready to own and run universities. If the government is not keen to make the basic commitment to enable the proper functioning of the universities, then let the government withdraw and allow those who can to take over. But Nigerians should not allow the government to do that. It behoves Nigerians to make the government become responsible and meet the challenge. If the Nigerian government must continue to reap the benefits of our common resources and our loyalty as citizens, it must rise to the occasion and become responsible. Nigerian universities must be well funded and supported to contribute to national growth and development with our common resources such as the revenue from oil and gas.
A government that recognises the critical role of universities in national development should not be evasive on issues that affects the universities. Education is a social mobility that particularly gives confidence and future to the poor. It therefore smacks of arrogance on the part of the Nigerian Federal Government to insist that it has yielded enough to ASUU and that it can’t yield any further. That is arrant stupidity!
The Federal Government should show commitment to national development by signing the agreement it has already reached with ASUU without any further prevarication or the flimsy excuse that Nigeria is a Federation hence its’ wish not to bind states into any agreement. The result being that ASUU should sign such agreement with its employers or states. That again, is arrant stupidity and chicanery.
I say so because of just one reason; Why does the FG have bodies such as the National Universities Commission (NUC) that accredits and certificates universities?; and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) that controls admissions into all Universities in Nigeria? If Nigeria is truly a federation or practices federalism; states should be allowed to run universities without federal structures such as NUC and JAMB; both of which are national institutions whose functions impinges on the so called principle of federalism.
Yes, education is on the concurrent list of the so called Nigerian constitution, and the interest of the FG renders those of states invalid in any collision, hence I am of the opinion that the FG should go the extra mile and show leadership by setting the standard in the sector by not only signing the agreement it has reached with ASUU but use the opportunity to revive the Nigerian university system.
The benefits accruable in a well funded and administered university system in Nigeria is great. Researches being carried out in universities should be made a major plank of planning in the country. Setting up universities merely for graduating and awarding certificates to students without bothering to develop an interplay between political governance, policy formulation and university research diminishes the role of universities in national development.
Nobody eats his cake and still expects to still have it. Only fools plant oranges and expect to reap tomatoes. The FG should desist from sowing the whirlwind because it is often destructive. The current debacle from all perspectives is not really for ASUU, it is for the soul of the Nigerian state and as a result deserves the support of everybody if corruption, ineptitude and ignorance as well as other social vices already endemic are to be exterminated.
Then, names such as Dr. Attahiru Jega, Prof Ben Nwabueze, Dr Iyorchia Ayu and General Abacha were common and synonymous with strikes of those days. While Dr. Jega and Dr Iyorchia Ayu were at different times National Presidents of ASUU; Professor Nwabueze was the Education Minister.
At some point the Universities were shut for almost one academic year because of the intransigence of the Federal Government (FG). While the students’ lost a whole academic year, critical learning facilities in the universities were vandalised and looted, and ASUU members were bullied and some were out rightly sacked. Some of the lecturers that had the means left the system.
The government promoted the propaganda that ASUU was unkind to suffering students hence whipping up sentiments amongst parents. Yet, the same government was unable to address the remote cause of the strikes as the strikes came in series in 1993, 1994, 1995 and 1996. If it was not ASUU; it would be NASU or a combination of the two.
Why have ASUU strikes refused to go away? Counting from 1993, it is well over 10 years, yet the situation and circumstances that give rise to these nauseating strikes are still endemic, why? Then, people had the illusion that those issues persisted because of the intransigence of the ruling military junta. Today, the raw deal from politicians baffles all and tends to make less heinous the evil deeds of the military. So, why ASUU strike in a democracy?
Perhaps, the problem persists because the government does not understand the critical role of universities in governance or that politicians learnt nothing from events of the 1990’s.Tail or head, the central matter in this whole ASUU-FG debacle is the Nigerian University. The sole casualty is the university and all that it represents. There could be related casualties, and these are the students, parents, academic staff of universities and small scale businesses that operate or rely on the running of the universities to thrive.
People or groups who argue that ASUU should return to classrooms for the sake of Nigerian students are either ignorant of the core issues or are simply being mischievous. It should be noted that students, though cardinal components of the universities are dependent on the system to a greater extent than the system on them. If the system is ill-equipped or malfunctioning, it tells on the students.
I am of the view that two principal forces are often at play in every university, and these are the financier (government, the private sector and donors etc ), and the driver(the lecturers and the administrators). No doubt, students are also players but they are not principal players as they neither fund the system nor run it. Students are merely recipients of knowledge and are in most cases on transit. Students hardly influences the system but the system does influence the students; a case of ‘’soldier come, soldier go, barrack remains’’ . The resilience of the barrack to meet the all time demands of the soldiers is now the issue.
Globally, great universities such as the Ivy leagues universities in the USA, despite the high tuition paid by their students rely on far greater extent on external funds from the private sector and the government to thrive. Students’ tuition is incapable of carrying any university. So, raising tuition in Nigerian universities is incapable of solving the problem.
Therefore, when the kernel of the matter is deferred in order to allow students to just attend overcrowded lectures in poorly ventilated and hot lecture halls or for groups and sets of students to enrol into or graduate from universities, greater harm is being unleashed on the university.
It is this scenario that have kept Nigerian universities in this sorry pass of strikes upon strikes over the years. Often, parents are just too selfish to have their wards to just get on with the situation and graduate. The same applies to the students, who often want to graduate and be free from the system. By so doing, the cycle continues thus exacerbating the rot .Even at that where are the students graduating into; a hapless and frustrating Nigerian society.
Those who lampoon ASUU should bother to link or trace the remote cause of so much unemployment and the do or die jingo of securing a job to this creeping national problem we have in Nigerian universities. But, if Nigerians needs to be reminded; unemployment in Nigeria to a large extent reflect the rot in the Nigerian universities.
As at today, most Nigerian graduates lack basic skills such as those in computer use, essay writing, PowerPoint presentations and even poster design or how to use the GIS or GPS etc. Conversely, these are common skills in universities elsewhere where the system works. Fix the Nigerian university system and see the reflection on the larger society.
To a large extent, I am of the thinking that Nigerian government, both the federal and state are not really ready to own and run universities. If the government is not keen to make the basic commitment to enable the proper functioning of the universities, then let the government withdraw and allow those who can to take over. But Nigerians should not allow the government to do that. It behoves Nigerians to make the government become responsible and meet the challenge. If the Nigerian government must continue to reap the benefits of our common resources and our loyalty as citizens, it must rise to the occasion and become responsible. Nigerian universities must be well funded and supported to contribute to national growth and development with our common resources such as the revenue from oil and gas.
A government that recognises the critical role of universities in national development should not be evasive on issues that affects the universities. Education is a social mobility that particularly gives confidence and future to the poor. It therefore smacks of arrogance on the part of the Nigerian Federal Government to insist that it has yielded enough to ASUU and that it can’t yield any further. That is arrant stupidity!
The Federal Government should show commitment to national development by signing the agreement it has already reached with ASUU without any further prevarication or the flimsy excuse that Nigeria is a Federation hence its’ wish not to bind states into any agreement. The result being that ASUU should sign such agreement with its employers or states. That again, is arrant stupidity and chicanery.
I say so because of just one reason; Why does the FG have bodies such as the National Universities Commission (NUC) that accredits and certificates universities?; and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) that controls admissions into all Universities in Nigeria? If Nigeria is truly a federation or practices federalism; states should be allowed to run universities without federal structures such as NUC and JAMB; both of which are national institutions whose functions impinges on the so called principle of federalism.
Yes, education is on the concurrent list of the so called Nigerian constitution, and the interest of the FG renders those of states invalid in any collision, hence I am of the opinion that the FG should go the extra mile and show leadership by setting the standard in the sector by not only signing the agreement it has reached with ASUU but use the opportunity to revive the Nigerian university system.
The benefits accruable in a well funded and administered university system in Nigeria is great. Researches being carried out in universities should be made a major plank of planning in the country. Setting up universities merely for graduating and awarding certificates to students without bothering to develop an interplay between political governance, policy formulation and university research diminishes the role of universities in national development.
Nobody eats his cake and still expects to still have it. Only fools plant oranges and expect to reap tomatoes. The FG should desist from sowing the whirlwind because it is often destructive. The current debacle from all perspectives is not really for ASUU, it is for the soul of the Nigerian state and as a result deserves the support of everybody if corruption, ineptitude and ignorance as well as other social vices already endemic are to be exterminated.
Saturday 27 June 2009
Overcoming a latent inertia to food security
SIDA course participant and social entrepreneur, Jonathan Eke had come to the sub-technical committee meeting of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, Abuja Nigeria to convince the group on why the ministry should adopt the eco-sanitation technology as a desired sanitation option, but the technology he is promoting appears very strange and exotic to a majority of the audience.
Eke’s product is a dry system that directly uses excreta in agriculture.Otherwise known as ecological sanitation; it is designed to deal with human waste in an environmentally and economically sustainable way. Here, the urine is diverted to a soakaway, leaving only faeces to accumulate in the sealed vault below the toilet.
The operating principal according to Eke, is that the faecal matter remains dry and safe to handle over time. ‘’This toilet uses a double vault system” he said. “ Once the first vault is full, the pedestal is moved to cover the second vault. The opening to the first vault is sealed with a lid. This allows for the faecal matter in the first vault to dry out for at least six months before it is removed, when the second vault is full”.
He continued “Each time the toilet is used the householder throws in a cup of sand or ash to cover the faeces. This helps in the drying process and reduces smells. The dried faecal matter can be safely removed by the householder at no cost. This faecal matter is taken to the farm to make compost and enrich farm harvest”.
Concluding he said “This technology significantly enhances the treatment of sludge through composting, an end product that yields cheaper source of organic soil conditioner for local farmers. To start the composting process, the compostable material is (dried faeces from the vault) is placed in long piles with kitchen and garden waste. The ‘recipe’ combines high carbon and high nitrogen materials. Air is added to maintain aerobic conditions, either by turning the piles (windrows) or forcing air through them’’.
But the audience was not convinced as almost everybody raised his/her hands to ask questions when he finished his explanations. The first question came from the group’s chairlady, Rose, who asked, “But who gets rid of the faeces when the two vaults are filled, how long does it take for these vaults to get filled?, Eke replied “the householder and this at intervals of six months”, but this answer arouses further questions;
“How do you convince an urban dweller to replace the water flush system with this dry system?” Gladys, a woman engineer sitting next to him asked. Eke was trying to get an answer when another question was asked; “How do you wash the toilet?” asked Bello, who works for UNICEF.
“Do you need to construct a pit, how deep? Asked Ade; a burly built man who had come from one of the states in the west. “How do you adapt this technology to an upstairs accommodation? Asked Etim; the general manager of a sanitation agency in the south.
It was a torrent of questions for the 27years old Eke who seemed the youngest in the group; but as he tries to satisfy their curiosities, more questions poured in. One of those was the question from Opara who had come from Onitsha, a city that sources its drinking water from the Niger River.
He had asked three questions at a go; “how culturally acceptable is this idea of handling one’s feaces”? ;……. ‘’How do you run this type of system in urban areas where there may be little need for compost’’; and …..”Do you think that people would be willing to eat crops grown with human faeces? Etc. His questions drew uproar of laughter from almost everybody there seated. Even at that more hands were still up, rearing for more questions. But that is where Augustine Smart, a previous SIDA course alumni and project manager of Latrine-Tec Nigeria Limited, steps in. "You have to allow the young man answer your questions one after the other," Augustine tells the group.
The two men, Eke and Augustine; previously unfamiliar, were brought together by the one day sub-committee meeting. The meeting gathers State water utilities, private firms, water related civil society organizations and research institution heads from all over the country, who are trying to find a solution to the many management and technical problems afflicting the country’s water and sanitation sector.
Augustine, speaking before the 100 participants, exhaustively explained the benefit of the eco-sanitation system and why it should be adopted in the country.
Augustine’s company is into the business of emptying, designing, upgrading and short listing of toilets/latrines. The company partners with the public and private groups to improve public health, personal dignity and the quality of the living environment.
He has been in the sewage disposal business for over 10 years and is well respected because of his expertise in the sector. He is a great exponent of “Sanitize and Recycle”, a model which he describes as a cycle; a sustainable, closed-loop system. It treats human excreta as a resource. Urine and faeces are stored and processed on site and then, if necessary, further processed off site until they are free of disease organism. The nutrients contained in the excreta are then recycled by using them in agriculture.
According to him “In today’s urban societies the flow of plant nutrients is linear: nutrients are taken up from the soil by the crop, transported to the market, eaten, excreted and discharged. In a sustainable society the production of food must be based on returning the plant nutrients to the soil. The use of chemical fertilizers is not sustainable, since their production relies on non-renewable resources”.
He concluded by explaining that “Ecological sanitation is based on 3 fundamental principles: Preventing pollution rather than attempting to control it after we pollute; sanitizing the urine and the faeces; and using the safe products for agricultural purposes”. It was from this approach that he defined his model; “Sanitize-and recycle”.
In view of the foregoing, it is good to report that Nigeria is ranked 20th on the Global Hunger Index. What this means is that about 65percent of Nigerians are food insecure and vulnerable to hunger and ill-health.
Though a coterie of factors is involved in food cultivation, but the role of fertilizer (organic or inorganic) is great. Sadly findings have shown that fertilizer application is still dismal amongst farmers. Nigeria is said to require about 3.7million metric tones of fertilizer per annum but only one-third is used in the farms.
Nigeria’s rate of application of NPK is reported to be 13kg per hectare. The ugly implication is the heavy post harvest losses calculated at 50per cent for fruits and vegetables and 30per cent for root crops and tubers. The number of those using compost or inorganic manure is grossly unknown, yet the potential for this brand of fertilizer to complement or replace the chemical fertilizers are not really considered hence the strangeness of eco-sanitation as being promoted by Eke.
Interestingly, Nigeria’s policy guideline on excreta and sewage management (2005) prescribes amongst others for the promotion and adaptation of the by-products of sewage treatment in productive uses. This if practiced will benefit the population in many ways.
First, food security and poverty alleviation .In parts of Nigeria, particularly in rural Nigeria, rural people suffer from periodic famine due to drought, small plot size, soil erosion, poverty (inability to purchase sufficient food) and political factors. In urban areas , poor people also suffer from under nutrition due to poverty, although urban agriculture is a growing phenomenon. However, growing food for the immediate family within confined spaces is a challenge.
The products from eco-toilets with their nutrients can be used in rural and urban areas to increase food security for all households, particularly the poor.
The products from eco-toilets can be used directly at the homestead level, in backyard gardens. Researches have shown that about 1.5litres of undiluted urine can be used to fertilize 1 square meter of soil. 1.5 liters is the amount produced by one adult in one day.
Even without an eco-toilet, people could collect their own urine and use it on backyard gardens to increase yields. However, the fertilizing effect of urine is said to work best in soil with high organic matter content and this can be increased by adding the humus from eco-toilets and garden composts.
In urban areas, the sanitized humus from eco-toilets can be used as a rich nutritious soil for planting in pots, and the urine can be used to fertilize the soil before planting and for continued fertilization of plants during growth.
Vegetable and fruit crops grown using urine fertilization produces 2-10 times the amount of crop by weight as those grown in unfertilized, poor soil. If people use urine to grow vegetables and fruits, the increased production results in greater food security at virtually no cost.
Soil enriched with humus from eco-toilets holds water longer than soils not enriched with compost. Research has also shown that plants grown in soils enriched with large amounts of humus require less watering and survive droughts better than plants grown in ordinary soils without this humus.
In times of drought as was recently experience in Yobe and Jigawa states in northern Nigeria, when whole fields of grain may die, backyard crops grown on humus may well survive and produce enough vegetables to help a family through a difficult period. If over time, families can collect enough humus from their eco-toilets, they may be able to enrich larger and larger areas, leading to increasing food security.
Second, cost saving for Nigerian farmers is another benefit. This is true because the formulation of nutrients in urine is similar but not exactly the same as that in commercial fertilizers. But urine and commercial fertilizers give similar results in boosting plant growth.
Urine is high in nitrogen and lower in phosphorus and potassium. Some top-up of phosphorus and potassium is often needed to get the best possible use of nitrogen. As faeces and ash are high in phosphorus and potassium, farmers can replace commercial fertilizers with urine and top-up with sanitized faeces from eco-toilets at little or no extra cost.
A study in China calculated the cost savings of using urine and dried faecal humus from eco-toilets as a fertilizer in a 3000 square meter greenhouse owned by one farmer in Jilin Province of northern China. The farmer not only used the dried faeces from his household but also purchased additional dried faeces from other homes with eco-toilets and was given their urine free of charge.
He did not calculate the cost of transport of dried faeces (which was transported by tractor) or the cost of transporting urine, which was carried in buckets on shoulder poles. He used to buy 350-400kg commercial fertilizer per year, but now this has been replaced by the free urine. The farmer calculated his cost savings per year to be the equivalent of CNY 740 (USD90) per 1000 square meters.
Such calculations could become even more important at the community level, especially where farmers are struggling to make a living. A city of 100,000 people would produce about 500,000kg of elemental nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK) per year in excreta. While the cost of commercial fertilizer varies between countries, as does its content of elemental NPK, it is possible to make a rough cost comparison of buying elemental products or collecting and transporting locally produced urine and faeces.
Third; preventing nitrogen pollution of drinking water in our communities is another benefit. Pit toilets as well as sewers are frequently a source of ground water pollution, especially in areas where the water table is high such as Port Harcourt, Calabar and Lagos etc.
Urine is rich in nitrogen and up to 50% of the nitrogen leaches out of the pit toilet pass through the soil and reaches the groundwater. Water with NO3 concentrations higher than 50mg/liter is considered to be unfit for human consumption. It is not unusual to find such high concentrations of nitrogen in wells in communities with pit toilets.
Recommendations as those in Nigeria’s policy guidelines on excreta and sewage management (2005) that toilets be sited at least 30meters from wells are meant to protect well water from pollution, but plenty experience shows that soil conditions vary considerably and both pathogens and nitrogen pollution can still result.
Finally, restoring lost top soils could also be another great benefit. This is true because according to FAO, the Earth is losing 25billion tones of topsoil per year because of erosion. Chemical fertilizers, while boosting plant growth, cannot replace topsoil. Topsoil contains humus formed from decayed plant and animal matter, and is rich in carbon compounds and micro-organisms necessary for healthy plant growth, which are not found in chemical fertilizers.
The addition of humus is therefore necessary to maintain and renew the topsoil. With the loss of topsoil comes the loss of human food security. In many parts of the world, people are experiencing reduced productivity on their lands due to loss of top soils.
But is Eke capable of convincing the group and the authorities of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources who are the conveners of the sub-technical committee meeting to consider the merits of his case? Perhaps there is also need to seek the ears of the Federal Ministry of Environment so that a synergy could be achieved.
Already a chemical fertilizer contract worth 64billion Naira has been awarded by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources. This was in the categories of 290,000 metric tones of Urea; 210,000 metric tones of NPK 15-15-15 and NPK 20-10-10 each as well as 150,000 metric tones of SPP18 percent.
The award of this contract almost caused a scandal for the ministry when contracted earlier screened for the contract were dropped for reasons that bordered on corruption charges according to the minister Dr.Abba Ruma. The minister had explained that the ministry was able to save the Federal Government of Nigeria about 20billion naira through proper certification of fertilizer suppliers in Nigeria.
Already the global rise of oil price has already reflected in fertilizers since fertilizers are usually hydrocarbon derived. This has inhibited large purchase on the part of the government and the individual. The Federal Government of Nigeria had to shelve its original plan of buying 850 metric tones for 650,000 metric tones. What this means is that only a fewer number of farmers will actually get fertilizer while many will not.
In this context is the urgent need to adapt farmers to the sustainable benefits of eco-sanitation products; urine and faeces. For a product like urine this is true, because most of the plant nutrients in human excreta are found in the urine. Based on data from five countries (China, Haiti, India, South Africa and Uganda) it is estimated that on average each person produces about 5kg of elemental NPK in excreta per year; about 4kg in the urine and 1kg in the faeces. Using urine as a fertilizer is worth it, especially as its content of NPK is readily available to the plants.
In Sweden, the total yearly production of human urine contains elemental nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium equivalent to approximately 20% of the amounts of these nutrients used as mineral fertilizers in 1999/2000. The concentrations of heavy metals in human urine are negligible- an important advantage over chemical fertilizers.
Urine works better if the soil to which it is added contains humus. Such humus is rich in living materials and beneficial soil bacteria, and these convert the urine nitrogen into a form that the plant can use.
Trials on the fertilizing effects of urine have been tried in a number of other countries. Example: In Sweden, tests on Barley showed that the nitrogen effect of urine corresponded to about 90% of that of equal amounts of ammonium nitrate mineral fertilizers.
Similar test on Leeks showed that fertilizing with urine gave a threefold crop yield increase. The nitrogen efficiency…, when using human urine was high, ranging from 47% to 66%. This is the same level as when mineral fertilizers are used. Nitrogen efficiency for most other organic fertilizers e.g. Compost, is normally between 5 and 30%. Tests on Swiss chard in Ethiopia showed crop yields of the fertilized plots were up to four times of the unfertilized.
Human faeces consist mainly of undigested organic matter such as fibers made up of carbon. Although faeces contain fewer nutrients than urine, the humus produced from faeces actually contains higher concentrations of phosphorus and potassium.
After pathogen destruction (through dehydration/or decomposition) the resulting inoffensive material may be applied to the soil to increase the amount of available nutrients, to increase the amount of available nutrients, to increase the organic matter content and to improve the water holding capacity.
With poor soils, the best way of enhancing plant growth using processed human excreta is in two stages. The first stage involves improving the texture and humus content of the soil by combining it with humus formed from processed faeces or faeces and urine. Leaf compost and garden compost can also be used at this stage.
The second stage involves enhancing and sustaining the nutrient levels in the soil with urine. It should be noted that during growth, all plants take up nutrients, and the nutrients removed from the field during crop harvests must be replaced if the soil is to remain a fertile medium for growing of healthy plants.
It was with all this in mind that an international group of planners, architects, engineers, hydro-geologists, ecologists, biologists, agronomists and social scientists have since the 1990’s developed an approach to sanitation that saves water, does not pollute and returns the nutrients in human excreta to the soil. We call this approach “ecological sanitation”, or “eco-san” for short.
Certainly this is not a queer approach to food security. It works!
Eke’s product is a dry system that directly uses excreta in agriculture.Otherwise known as ecological sanitation; it is designed to deal with human waste in an environmentally and economically sustainable way. Here, the urine is diverted to a soakaway, leaving only faeces to accumulate in the sealed vault below the toilet.
The operating principal according to Eke, is that the faecal matter remains dry and safe to handle over time. ‘’This toilet uses a double vault system” he said. “ Once the first vault is full, the pedestal is moved to cover the second vault. The opening to the first vault is sealed with a lid. This allows for the faecal matter in the first vault to dry out for at least six months before it is removed, when the second vault is full”.
He continued “Each time the toilet is used the householder throws in a cup of sand or ash to cover the faeces. This helps in the drying process and reduces smells. The dried faecal matter can be safely removed by the householder at no cost. This faecal matter is taken to the farm to make compost and enrich farm harvest”.
Concluding he said “This technology significantly enhances the treatment of sludge through composting, an end product that yields cheaper source of organic soil conditioner for local farmers. To start the composting process, the compostable material is (dried faeces from the vault) is placed in long piles with kitchen and garden waste. The ‘recipe’ combines high carbon and high nitrogen materials. Air is added to maintain aerobic conditions, either by turning the piles (windrows) or forcing air through them’’.
But the audience was not convinced as almost everybody raised his/her hands to ask questions when he finished his explanations. The first question came from the group’s chairlady, Rose, who asked, “But who gets rid of the faeces when the two vaults are filled, how long does it take for these vaults to get filled?, Eke replied “the householder and this at intervals of six months”, but this answer arouses further questions;
“How do you convince an urban dweller to replace the water flush system with this dry system?” Gladys, a woman engineer sitting next to him asked. Eke was trying to get an answer when another question was asked; “How do you wash the toilet?” asked Bello, who works for UNICEF.
“Do you need to construct a pit, how deep? Asked Ade; a burly built man who had come from one of the states in the west. “How do you adapt this technology to an upstairs accommodation? Asked Etim; the general manager of a sanitation agency in the south.
It was a torrent of questions for the 27years old Eke who seemed the youngest in the group; but as he tries to satisfy their curiosities, more questions poured in. One of those was the question from Opara who had come from Onitsha, a city that sources its drinking water from the Niger River.
He had asked three questions at a go; “how culturally acceptable is this idea of handling one’s feaces”? ;……. ‘’How do you run this type of system in urban areas where there may be little need for compost’’; and …..”Do you think that people would be willing to eat crops grown with human faeces? Etc. His questions drew uproar of laughter from almost everybody there seated. Even at that more hands were still up, rearing for more questions. But that is where Augustine Smart, a previous SIDA course alumni and project manager of Latrine-Tec Nigeria Limited, steps in. "You have to allow the young man answer your questions one after the other," Augustine tells the group.
The two men, Eke and Augustine; previously unfamiliar, were brought together by the one day sub-committee meeting. The meeting gathers State water utilities, private firms, water related civil society organizations and research institution heads from all over the country, who are trying to find a solution to the many management and technical problems afflicting the country’s water and sanitation sector.
Augustine, speaking before the 100 participants, exhaustively explained the benefit of the eco-sanitation system and why it should be adopted in the country.
Augustine’s company is into the business of emptying, designing, upgrading and short listing of toilets/latrines. The company partners with the public and private groups to improve public health, personal dignity and the quality of the living environment.
He has been in the sewage disposal business for over 10 years and is well respected because of his expertise in the sector. He is a great exponent of “Sanitize and Recycle”, a model which he describes as a cycle; a sustainable, closed-loop system. It treats human excreta as a resource. Urine and faeces are stored and processed on site and then, if necessary, further processed off site until they are free of disease organism. The nutrients contained in the excreta are then recycled by using them in agriculture.
According to him “In today’s urban societies the flow of plant nutrients is linear: nutrients are taken up from the soil by the crop, transported to the market, eaten, excreted and discharged. In a sustainable society the production of food must be based on returning the plant nutrients to the soil. The use of chemical fertilizers is not sustainable, since their production relies on non-renewable resources”.
He concluded by explaining that “Ecological sanitation is based on 3 fundamental principles: Preventing pollution rather than attempting to control it after we pollute; sanitizing the urine and the faeces; and using the safe products for agricultural purposes”. It was from this approach that he defined his model; “Sanitize-and recycle”.
In view of the foregoing, it is good to report that Nigeria is ranked 20th on the Global Hunger Index. What this means is that about 65percent of Nigerians are food insecure and vulnerable to hunger and ill-health.
Though a coterie of factors is involved in food cultivation, but the role of fertilizer (organic or inorganic) is great. Sadly findings have shown that fertilizer application is still dismal amongst farmers. Nigeria is said to require about 3.7million metric tones of fertilizer per annum but only one-third is used in the farms.
Nigeria’s rate of application of NPK is reported to be 13kg per hectare. The ugly implication is the heavy post harvest losses calculated at 50per cent for fruits and vegetables and 30per cent for root crops and tubers. The number of those using compost or inorganic manure is grossly unknown, yet the potential for this brand of fertilizer to complement or replace the chemical fertilizers are not really considered hence the strangeness of eco-sanitation as being promoted by Eke.
Interestingly, Nigeria’s policy guideline on excreta and sewage management (2005) prescribes amongst others for the promotion and adaptation of the by-products of sewage treatment in productive uses. This if practiced will benefit the population in many ways.
First, food security and poverty alleviation .In parts of Nigeria, particularly in rural Nigeria, rural people suffer from periodic famine due to drought, small plot size, soil erosion, poverty (inability to purchase sufficient food) and political factors. In urban areas , poor people also suffer from under nutrition due to poverty, although urban agriculture is a growing phenomenon. However, growing food for the immediate family within confined spaces is a challenge.
The products from eco-toilets with their nutrients can be used in rural and urban areas to increase food security for all households, particularly the poor.
The products from eco-toilets can be used directly at the homestead level, in backyard gardens. Researches have shown that about 1.5litres of undiluted urine can be used to fertilize 1 square meter of soil. 1.5 liters is the amount produced by one adult in one day.
Even without an eco-toilet, people could collect their own urine and use it on backyard gardens to increase yields. However, the fertilizing effect of urine is said to work best in soil with high organic matter content and this can be increased by adding the humus from eco-toilets and garden composts.
In urban areas, the sanitized humus from eco-toilets can be used as a rich nutritious soil for planting in pots, and the urine can be used to fertilize the soil before planting and for continued fertilization of plants during growth.
Vegetable and fruit crops grown using urine fertilization produces 2-10 times the amount of crop by weight as those grown in unfertilized, poor soil. If people use urine to grow vegetables and fruits, the increased production results in greater food security at virtually no cost.
Soil enriched with humus from eco-toilets holds water longer than soils not enriched with compost. Research has also shown that plants grown in soils enriched with large amounts of humus require less watering and survive droughts better than plants grown in ordinary soils without this humus.
In times of drought as was recently experience in Yobe and Jigawa states in northern Nigeria, when whole fields of grain may die, backyard crops grown on humus may well survive and produce enough vegetables to help a family through a difficult period. If over time, families can collect enough humus from their eco-toilets, they may be able to enrich larger and larger areas, leading to increasing food security.
Second, cost saving for Nigerian farmers is another benefit. This is true because the formulation of nutrients in urine is similar but not exactly the same as that in commercial fertilizers. But urine and commercial fertilizers give similar results in boosting plant growth.
Urine is high in nitrogen and lower in phosphorus and potassium. Some top-up of phosphorus and potassium is often needed to get the best possible use of nitrogen. As faeces and ash are high in phosphorus and potassium, farmers can replace commercial fertilizers with urine and top-up with sanitized faeces from eco-toilets at little or no extra cost.
A study in China calculated the cost savings of using urine and dried faecal humus from eco-toilets as a fertilizer in a 3000 square meter greenhouse owned by one farmer in Jilin Province of northern China. The farmer not only used the dried faeces from his household but also purchased additional dried faeces from other homes with eco-toilets and was given their urine free of charge.
He did not calculate the cost of transport of dried faeces (which was transported by tractor) or the cost of transporting urine, which was carried in buckets on shoulder poles. He used to buy 350-400kg commercial fertilizer per year, but now this has been replaced by the free urine. The farmer calculated his cost savings per year to be the equivalent of CNY 740 (USD90) per 1000 square meters.
Such calculations could become even more important at the community level, especially where farmers are struggling to make a living. A city of 100,000 people would produce about 500,000kg of elemental nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK) per year in excreta. While the cost of commercial fertilizer varies between countries, as does its content of elemental NPK, it is possible to make a rough cost comparison of buying elemental products or collecting and transporting locally produced urine and faeces.
Third; preventing nitrogen pollution of drinking water in our communities is another benefit. Pit toilets as well as sewers are frequently a source of ground water pollution, especially in areas where the water table is high such as Port Harcourt, Calabar and Lagos etc.
Urine is rich in nitrogen and up to 50% of the nitrogen leaches out of the pit toilet pass through the soil and reaches the groundwater. Water with NO3 concentrations higher than 50mg/liter is considered to be unfit for human consumption. It is not unusual to find such high concentrations of nitrogen in wells in communities with pit toilets.
Recommendations as those in Nigeria’s policy guidelines on excreta and sewage management (2005) that toilets be sited at least 30meters from wells are meant to protect well water from pollution, but plenty experience shows that soil conditions vary considerably and both pathogens and nitrogen pollution can still result.
Finally, restoring lost top soils could also be another great benefit. This is true because according to FAO, the Earth is losing 25billion tones of topsoil per year because of erosion. Chemical fertilizers, while boosting plant growth, cannot replace topsoil. Topsoil contains humus formed from decayed plant and animal matter, and is rich in carbon compounds and micro-organisms necessary for healthy plant growth, which are not found in chemical fertilizers.
The addition of humus is therefore necessary to maintain and renew the topsoil. With the loss of topsoil comes the loss of human food security. In many parts of the world, people are experiencing reduced productivity on their lands due to loss of top soils.
But is Eke capable of convincing the group and the authorities of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources who are the conveners of the sub-technical committee meeting to consider the merits of his case? Perhaps there is also need to seek the ears of the Federal Ministry of Environment so that a synergy could be achieved.
Already a chemical fertilizer contract worth 64billion Naira has been awarded by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources. This was in the categories of 290,000 metric tones of Urea; 210,000 metric tones of NPK 15-15-15 and NPK 20-10-10 each as well as 150,000 metric tones of SPP18 percent.
The award of this contract almost caused a scandal for the ministry when contracted earlier screened for the contract were dropped for reasons that bordered on corruption charges according to the minister Dr.Abba Ruma. The minister had explained that the ministry was able to save the Federal Government of Nigeria about 20billion naira through proper certification of fertilizer suppliers in Nigeria.
Already the global rise of oil price has already reflected in fertilizers since fertilizers are usually hydrocarbon derived. This has inhibited large purchase on the part of the government and the individual. The Federal Government of Nigeria had to shelve its original plan of buying 850 metric tones for 650,000 metric tones. What this means is that only a fewer number of farmers will actually get fertilizer while many will not.
In this context is the urgent need to adapt farmers to the sustainable benefits of eco-sanitation products; urine and faeces. For a product like urine this is true, because most of the plant nutrients in human excreta are found in the urine. Based on data from five countries (China, Haiti, India, South Africa and Uganda) it is estimated that on average each person produces about 5kg of elemental NPK in excreta per year; about 4kg in the urine and 1kg in the faeces. Using urine as a fertilizer is worth it, especially as its content of NPK is readily available to the plants.
In Sweden, the total yearly production of human urine contains elemental nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium equivalent to approximately 20% of the amounts of these nutrients used as mineral fertilizers in 1999/2000. The concentrations of heavy metals in human urine are negligible- an important advantage over chemical fertilizers.
Urine works better if the soil to which it is added contains humus. Such humus is rich in living materials and beneficial soil bacteria, and these convert the urine nitrogen into a form that the plant can use.
Trials on the fertilizing effects of urine have been tried in a number of other countries. Example: In Sweden, tests on Barley showed that the nitrogen effect of urine corresponded to about 90% of that of equal amounts of ammonium nitrate mineral fertilizers.
Similar test on Leeks showed that fertilizing with urine gave a threefold crop yield increase. The nitrogen efficiency…, when using human urine was high, ranging from 47% to 66%. This is the same level as when mineral fertilizers are used. Nitrogen efficiency for most other organic fertilizers e.g. Compost, is normally between 5 and 30%. Tests on Swiss chard in Ethiopia showed crop yields of the fertilized plots were up to four times of the unfertilized.
Human faeces consist mainly of undigested organic matter such as fibers made up of carbon. Although faeces contain fewer nutrients than urine, the humus produced from faeces actually contains higher concentrations of phosphorus and potassium.
After pathogen destruction (through dehydration/or decomposition) the resulting inoffensive material may be applied to the soil to increase the amount of available nutrients, to increase the amount of available nutrients, to increase the organic matter content and to improve the water holding capacity.
With poor soils, the best way of enhancing plant growth using processed human excreta is in two stages. The first stage involves improving the texture and humus content of the soil by combining it with humus formed from processed faeces or faeces and urine. Leaf compost and garden compost can also be used at this stage.
The second stage involves enhancing and sustaining the nutrient levels in the soil with urine. It should be noted that during growth, all plants take up nutrients, and the nutrients removed from the field during crop harvests must be replaced if the soil is to remain a fertile medium for growing of healthy plants.
It was with all this in mind that an international group of planners, architects, engineers, hydro-geologists, ecologists, biologists, agronomists and social scientists have since the 1990’s developed an approach to sanitation that saves water, does not pollute and returns the nutrients in human excreta to the soil. We call this approach “ecological sanitation”, or “eco-san” for short.
Certainly this is not a queer approach to food security. It works!
Communicating Adaptation in Africa
Does it bother you that most discussions of how to address climate change in Africa has focused much more on adaptation(e.g. coping with the storms, floods, drought, sea- floor rise and other impacts that climate change will bring) than mitigation (e.g. reducing green house emission etc)?
Not to worry, both adaptation and mitigation are very crucial in addressing the challenges of climate change. However, the onus of addressing mitigation is common with countries like China, USA, Russia, India, Japan, Germany, Canada, UK, South Korea, Iran, Italy, South Africa, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, France, Australia, Brazil, Spain, Ukraine and Poland etc whose expanding economy has a huge feed demand for fuel. For these countries, mitigation is a central concern they constitute the top 20 CO2 emitters per capita (measured at metric tonnes per person). Apart from South Africa, no other African country made this list.
However, it is germane to note that in Marrakech in Morocco in November 2001, at the Seventh Conference of the Parties, delegates focused their minds on both adaptations to climate change and mitigation measures and, for the first time, formally recognized the dilemmas of adaptation for the developing nations. This recognition took the form of funding mechanisms to assist countries to adapt. The Delhi Declaration from the Eight Conference of the Parties in November 2002 reinforced the importance of adaptation. The Delhi Declaration, in effect, has linked the participation of the developing world in mitigation of emissions to actions and funding on adaptation to the impacts of climate change.
While developing countries with lean economies and who no doubt suffer the negative impacts of a changing climate are still struggling to define and adopt an adaptation pathway peculiar to its milieu, those in the top 20 CO2 emitting bracket have long set out in setting emission reduction targets.
In August 2008 Brazil launched the Amazon Fund, aimed at protecting the rainforest so vital to the world’s climate and combating climate change. In December 2008 Brazil also launched a national climate change plan which proposed to cut the country’s deforestation rate in half by 2018. For South Africa, an emission reduction strategy was drawn in July 2008. A final domestic policy is likely to be adopted by the end of 2010, likely to involve mandatory targets for reducing transport emissions and plans for increasing the carbon price.
Countries in the EU such as Germany and the UK are part of the European Union’s Climate Action Programme. The EU is committed to reducing its overall emissions to at least 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, and is ready to scale up this reduction to as much as 30 per cent under a new global climate change agreement when other developed countries make comparable efforts. Barack Obama has set out initial overall ambitions on climate change; and these are to return US emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, and reduce them by 80 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050. A key tool will be a cap-and-trade system like the EU’s Emission Trading System.
In April 2007 Canada released an action plan to reduce green house gases. The Canadian government committed to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases (relative to 2006 levels) by 20 per cent by 2020 and by 60 per cent to 70 per cent by 2050. In June 2007 China released a three-pronged national climate change programme, the first by any developing country. Its aims are to control greenhouse gas emissions, stimulate research and development, and raise public awareness. It has a renewable energy target (15 percent of total energy by 2020), and a plan to increase forest coverage rate to 20 per cent by 2010.
The IPCC proclaims that there is now little doubt that human induced climate change is happening. All societies consequently need to learn to cope with the changes that are predicted such as warmer temperatures, drier soils, changes in weather extremes and rising sea levels. The vulnerability of a system to climate change is determined by its exposure, by its physical settings and sensitivity, and by its ability and opportunity to adapt to change or otherwise. To illustrate these categories, sensitivity will be high where the system in question includes, for example, settlements built on flood plains, hill slopes or low-lying coastal areas.
What this means is that some sectors will be more sensitive and some groups more vulnerable to risks posed by climate change than others hence underscoring the urgency to build resilience through adaptive capacity required to face the evolving challenges in the years ahead. Peoples vulnerability to the risks associated with climate change is feared to likely evolve many other tight challenges such as poverty, especially in places like Africa where dependence on resources that are vulnerable to changing climate such as farming, fishery, water supplies etc is very high.
In terms of action, adaptation may take the form of reducing dependence on vulnerable systems such as diversifying food production away from a limited number of drought-prone crops, of decreasing sensitivity by avoiding building settlements and infrastructure in high-risk locations, or by strengthening existing systems so that they are less likely to be damaged by unusual events.
It also includes the need to mainstream into adaptation projects the recognition that people of developing countries are not just passive victims. Indeed, in the past they have had the greatest resilience to droughts, floods and other catastrophes etc. Pastoralists in West African Sahel have been known to adapt to cope with rainfall decreases of 25-33% in the twentieth century.
However, as efforts to develop and diffuse adaptation mechanisms in Africa and elsewhere grows in momentum, one major constraint has been the failure to develop an effective communication strategy to drive the process. Effective communication as a sub-set of development needs to be developed in order to get the message down to the bottom of the pyramid where those most affected agglutinate. The concept of information in general and of climate change adaptation information in particular, as a resource for effective adaptation and development needs to be domesticated well beyond current cosy confines of conference rooms and research hubs.
In Guinea, rising sea levels linked to global warming is feared to likely result in stronger coastal currents, higher tides and sea encroachment of land. Guinea’s coastal region, home to West Africa’s largest and richest mangroves, would therefore bear the brunt of global climate change. The region’s entire economy is now under threat. It is feared that the main victims of all these climate variations would be people living near the coast. An estimate of 2 million people is likely to suffer income losses.
In an effort to limit the foreseeable damage, Guinea has launched a national plan of action for climate change adaptation (PANA-CC), which sets out priorities, among them measures for protecting coastal areas. It outlines vigorous action for saving the mangroves and reforesting the region, planting teak and cashew trees. Faced with rising water levels, communities are being advised in Guinea to build sea walls and plant trees along the coast in order to protect the rice fields that have taken the place of the mangroves.
Other recommendations include enforcing laws on coastal settlements and tackling pollution. For these adaptation measures to work, it is crucial that local people be provided with environmental education and prepared for possible catastrophes in the future. Efforts such as those in Guinea need to be supported and diffused into other countries in the region as quickly as is possibly.
As measures such as those in Guinea and elsewhere get developed, it becomes urgent to educate people including government officials on what mitigation is, and how it differs from adaptation. Local policy makers, planners and administrators need to recognize that information is indispensable to the adaptation process. This is apparent with due cognizance of the fact that in most parts of Africa, the essential information mechanisms and infrastructural facilities are not yet sufficiently developed to foster the generation, storage, preservation, retrieval, dissemination and utilization of information.
However, effective communication is seen as an essential tool for the establishment and maintenance of good social and working relationships and it enables people to exercise control over their environment. The purpose of communication is to bring about change of attitude, knowledge, skills and aspiration of the receivers. In Nigeria, various communication media are commonly used to transmit all sorts of information to people. Some of these include magazines, leaflets, newsletters, newspapers, pamphlets, radio, internet, telephone (GSM) and television, among others.
Among these lot, radio rates higher and is often the most preferred tool of mass communication in Nigeria. Radio programs are usually timely and capable of extending messages to the audience no matter where they may be as long as they have a receiver with adequate supply of power. The absence of such facilities as road, light and water are no hindrance to radio. Similarly, such obstacles as difficult topography, distance, time and socio-political exigencies do not hinder the performance of radio. Illiteracy is no barrier to radio messages since such messages can be passed in the audience own language.
Not to worry, both adaptation and mitigation are very crucial in addressing the challenges of climate change. However, the onus of addressing mitigation is common with countries like China, USA, Russia, India, Japan, Germany, Canada, UK, South Korea, Iran, Italy, South Africa, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, France, Australia, Brazil, Spain, Ukraine and Poland etc whose expanding economy has a huge feed demand for fuel. For these countries, mitigation is a central concern they constitute the top 20 CO2 emitters per capita (measured at metric tonnes per person). Apart from South Africa, no other African country made this list.
However, it is germane to note that in Marrakech in Morocco in November 2001, at the Seventh Conference of the Parties, delegates focused their minds on both adaptations to climate change and mitigation measures and, for the first time, formally recognized the dilemmas of adaptation for the developing nations. This recognition took the form of funding mechanisms to assist countries to adapt. The Delhi Declaration from the Eight Conference of the Parties in November 2002 reinforced the importance of adaptation. The Delhi Declaration, in effect, has linked the participation of the developing world in mitigation of emissions to actions and funding on adaptation to the impacts of climate change.
While developing countries with lean economies and who no doubt suffer the negative impacts of a changing climate are still struggling to define and adopt an adaptation pathway peculiar to its milieu, those in the top 20 CO2 emitting bracket have long set out in setting emission reduction targets.
In August 2008 Brazil launched the Amazon Fund, aimed at protecting the rainforest so vital to the world’s climate and combating climate change. In December 2008 Brazil also launched a national climate change plan which proposed to cut the country’s deforestation rate in half by 2018. For South Africa, an emission reduction strategy was drawn in July 2008. A final domestic policy is likely to be adopted by the end of 2010, likely to involve mandatory targets for reducing transport emissions and plans for increasing the carbon price.
Countries in the EU such as Germany and the UK are part of the European Union’s Climate Action Programme. The EU is committed to reducing its overall emissions to at least 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, and is ready to scale up this reduction to as much as 30 per cent under a new global climate change agreement when other developed countries make comparable efforts. Barack Obama has set out initial overall ambitions on climate change; and these are to return US emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, and reduce them by 80 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050. A key tool will be a cap-and-trade system like the EU’s Emission Trading System.
In April 2007 Canada released an action plan to reduce green house gases. The Canadian government committed to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases (relative to 2006 levels) by 20 per cent by 2020 and by 60 per cent to 70 per cent by 2050. In June 2007 China released a three-pronged national climate change programme, the first by any developing country. Its aims are to control greenhouse gas emissions, stimulate research and development, and raise public awareness. It has a renewable energy target (15 percent of total energy by 2020), and a plan to increase forest coverage rate to 20 per cent by 2010.
The IPCC proclaims that there is now little doubt that human induced climate change is happening. All societies consequently need to learn to cope with the changes that are predicted such as warmer temperatures, drier soils, changes in weather extremes and rising sea levels. The vulnerability of a system to climate change is determined by its exposure, by its physical settings and sensitivity, and by its ability and opportunity to adapt to change or otherwise. To illustrate these categories, sensitivity will be high where the system in question includes, for example, settlements built on flood plains, hill slopes or low-lying coastal areas.
What this means is that some sectors will be more sensitive and some groups more vulnerable to risks posed by climate change than others hence underscoring the urgency to build resilience through adaptive capacity required to face the evolving challenges in the years ahead. Peoples vulnerability to the risks associated with climate change is feared to likely evolve many other tight challenges such as poverty, especially in places like Africa where dependence on resources that are vulnerable to changing climate such as farming, fishery, water supplies etc is very high.
In terms of action, adaptation may take the form of reducing dependence on vulnerable systems such as diversifying food production away from a limited number of drought-prone crops, of decreasing sensitivity by avoiding building settlements and infrastructure in high-risk locations, or by strengthening existing systems so that they are less likely to be damaged by unusual events.
It also includes the need to mainstream into adaptation projects the recognition that people of developing countries are not just passive victims. Indeed, in the past they have had the greatest resilience to droughts, floods and other catastrophes etc. Pastoralists in West African Sahel have been known to adapt to cope with rainfall decreases of 25-33% in the twentieth century.
However, as efforts to develop and diffuse adaptation mechanisms in Africa and elsewhere grows in momentum, one major constraint has been the failure to develop an effective communication strategy to drive the process. Effective communication as a sub-set of development needs to be developed in order to get the message down to the bottom of the pyramid where those most affected agglutinate. The concept of information in general and of climate change adaptation information in particular, as a resource for effective adaptation and development needs to be domesticated well beyond current cosy confines of conference rooms and research hubs.
In Guinea, rising sea levels linked to global warming is feared to likely result in stronger coastal currents, higher tides and sea encroachment of land. Guinea’s coastal region, home to West Africa’s largest and richest mangroves, would therefore bear the brunt of global climate change. The region’s entire economy is now under threat. It is feared that the main victims of all these climate variations would be people living near the coast. An estimate of 2 million people is likely to suffer income losses.
In an effort to limit the foreseeable damage, Guinea has launched a national plan of action for climate change adaptation (PANA-CC), which sets out priorities, among them measures for protecting coastal areas. It outlines vigorous action for saving the mangroves and reforesting the region, planting teak and cashew trees. Faced with rising water levels, communities are being advised in Guinea to build sea walls and plant trees along the coast in order to protect the rice fields that have taken the place of the mangroves.
Other recommendations include enforcing laws on coastal settlements and tackling pollution. For these adaptation measures to work, it is crucial that local people be provided with environmental education and prepared for possible catastrophes in the future. Efforts such as those in Guinea need to be supported and diffused into other countries in the region as quickly as is possibly.
As measures such as those in Guinea and elsewhere get developed, it becomes urgent to educate people including government officials on what mitigation is, and how it differs from adaptation. Local policy makers, planners and administrators need to recognize that information is indispensable to the adaptation process. This is apparent with due cognizance of the fact that in most parts of Africa, the essential information mechanisms and infrastructural facilities are not yet sufficiently developed to foster the generation, storage, preservation, retrieval, dissemination and utilization of information.
However, effective communication is seen as an essential tool for the establishment and maintenance of good social and working relationships and it enables people to exercise control over their environment. The purpose of communication is to bring about change of attitude, knowledge, skills and aspiration of the receivers. In Nigeria, various communication media are commonly used to transmit all sorts of information to people. Some of these include magazines, leaflets, newsletters, newspapers, pamphlets, radio, internet, telephone (GSM) and television, among others.
Among these lot, radio rates higher and is often the most preferred tool of mass communication in Nigeria. Radio programs are usually timely and capable of extending messages to the audience no matter where they may be as long as they have a receiver with adequate supply of power. The absence of such facilities as road, light and water are no hindrance to radio. Similarly, such obstacles as difficult topography, distance, time and socio-political exigencies do not hinder the performance of radio. Illiteracy is no barrier to radio messages since such messages can be passed in the audience own language.
Climate Change: Need to diffuse proactive Adaptation
There are growing fears that Climate Change presents another manner of external shock to the poor, and one of the ways to cushion the shock is possibly through the diffusion of adaptation measures as a proactive response. This is so because a great many of the poor men and women in urban, rural and peri-urban settings base their livelihoods on ‘informal activities’-----small-scale cropping, livestock rearing, agro-processing and other micro-enterprises.
In many of these activities, an adequate water supply is a crucial enabling resource: used in, or necessary for, the activity itself; freeing time (by reducing time spent collecting water); or as a key element in improved health that in turn enables people to work. Water supplies provided to households therefore have a huge potential to impact on poverty. This is particularly true for the poorest (and for women, who are in majority amongst the poorest).
Peoples’ water needs are typically met through multiple sources- from rainwater to waste-water to piped systems. Rarely do people rely on single sources as single sources tend to be used for multiple purposes. A review that builds on this reality in designing and service delivery to respond to extant exotic realities in the climate system is desired in order to meet peoples’ needs for households’ water supplies. This therefore underscores the fact that the challenges of water availability and water quality are intertwined with the challenges of food security, urbanization and environmental degradation. They stand in the way of poverty reduction and sustainable development.
The growing recognition of the serious gaps that already exist globally in access to safe drinking water and sanitation coupled with the overwhelming threat by climate change has exposed the need for innovative adaptation of appropriate technologies and measures in countries most at need. The adaptation processes need to increase the diffusion of technological innovations to the poor by highlighting how and overcoming the challenges of infrastructure and endemic traditional or cultural practices.
Adaptation actions offer a chance to decrease people’s vulnerability to the vagaries of climate change. This has become necessary because of the appreciation that existing gaps in water and sanitation services are embedded in the grinding realities of extreme poverty in regions with underdeveloped infrastructure, and in settings largely devoid of institutional mechanisms and cultural norms for fostering scalable interventions such as in Africa.
Regrettably discussions of how to address climate change have often focused far more on mitigation (reducing green house gas emissions) than adaptation (coping with the storms, floods, sea-level rise and other impacts that climate change brings). The limited discussions on adaptation have also given little attention to cities. But many cities in Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean are at high risk from climate change- even as they (or the nation in which they are located) have contributed very little to green house gas emissions.
There is every need now to discuss how to manage the impact of climate change on Nigeria’s urban water resources because of Nigeria’s high dependence upon natural resources. This vulnerability relates to many natural and human phenomena; including climate change and variability; pollution, population growth, water scarcity; and knowledge gaps. The development of an adaptation framework for these issues are urgently needed in Nigeria as in other parts of Africa, in order to alleviate the high risks faced by the country’s ecosystems, and to inform and strengthen the coping strategies of poor urban communities who may be less capable of adapting to climate change and other risks.
No doubt, water remains the most vital for human survival. Throughout Nigeria, people are becoming increasingly affected by the degradation of water sources. Disasters from floods, sanitary pollutions and droughts are ruining the lives and livelihood of many, and have recently been closely linked with global climate change. In this context is the fact that despite the critical importance of water resources to Nigeria, there have been very few studies of the effects of global warming or its management especially groundwater resources.
The effects of climate change have already been felt in many parts of the country with the modifications of the intensity and seasonal nature of the rains, the elevation of average annual temperatures, and the increased frequency of widespread, high impact weather phenomena including drought and flooding.
Floods in particular, especially in coastal cities like Lagos and Port Harcourt, and other parts of the country would still remain a major challenge because of the failure of leadership in these cities. Buildings, roads, infrastructure and other paved areas now obstruct natural drainage channels while greed have eclipsed provision for and use of parks and other open spaces as places to safely accommodate flood water from unusually serious storms. The result today is that rainfalls no longer easily infiltrate the soil- hence huge run-off. Worsening the situation is that heavy or prolonged rainfall now rapidly overwhelms most of our cities’ poorly maintained and insufficient drainage systems as those existing are full of silt and clogged with garbage.
As a cross-sectional element, water remains a central part of any vulnerability analyses dealing with climate change. Associated with drought and flood risk, water is a challenge represented by the increasing scarcity of the liquid so essential for human life. There is therefore need for the rational use of water in the broadest sense—including water saving and reuse and the recharging of aquifers etc.
In this context are the traditional problems of decaying water treatment plants and water pipes, insufficient capacity, and poor quality and quantity of water supply; lack of management capacity because of neglecting non-technical factors; weak financial structure and difficulty of new investments, because of high rate of non-revenue water, low water fees which cannot recover the costs, and over staffing, etc that are common in most water utilities in Nigeria.
A typical case is the Lagos State Water Corporation. Here, the water distribution network can only reach one in every three of the 15 million inhabitants of the city. Yet, they projected population growth of 4% per annum of the city means that the city’s water demand, will double by the year 2020. The cost of meeting current and projected demand has been put at around $2.5 billion over the next 20 years.
Generally, cities in Africa are worse hit because they do not only have limited means with which to expand the water, and maintain the quality but they also need to expand water supply services to meet the ever increasing needs of industry and to support growing population with varying distribution of population and settlement patterns in rural and urban settings. The consequence is that as the world remains on track to meeting the 2015 MDG water targets, disparities continue in sub-Saharan Africa which has the lowest coverage and is not on track for the MDG target.
There is therefore the need to cushion the shock by the diffusion of adaptation measures as a proactive response because the failure to act would heighten the risk of severe damage to the economy and other physical, chemical, and biological systems; all with severe negative consequences for Nigerians. This should start with a vulnerability analysis of the impacts of climate change and the putting in place of a viable action plan with efficient adaptation measures in every state of the country.
In many of these activities, an adequate water supply is a crucial enabling resource: used in, or necessary for, the activity itself; freeing time (by reducing time spent collecting water); or as a key element in improved health that in turn enables people to work. Water supplies provided to households therefore have a huge potential to impact on poverty. This is particularly true for the poorest (and for women, who are in majority amongst the poorest).
Peoples’ water needs are typically met through multiple sources- from rainwater to waste-water to piped systems. Rarely do people rely on single sources as single sources tend to be used for multiple purposes. A review that builds on this reality in designing and service delivery to respond to extant exotic realities in the climate system is desired in order to meet peoples’ needs for households’ water supplies. This therefore underscores the fact that the challenges of water availability and water quality are intertwined with the challenges of food security, urbanization and environmental degradation. They stand in the way of poverty reduction and sustainable development.
The growing recognition of the serious gaps that already exist globally in access to safe drinking water and sanitation coupled with the overwhelming threat by climate change has exposed the need for innovative adaptation of appropriate technologies and measures in countries most at need. The adaptation processes need to increase the diffusion of technological innovations to the poor by highlighting how and overcoming the challenges of infrastructure and endemic traditional or cultural practices.
Adaptation actions offer a chance to decrease people’s vulnerability to the vagaries of climate change. This has become necessary because of the appreciation that existing gaps in water and sanitation services are embedded in the grinding realities of extreme poverty in regions with underdeveloped infrastructure, and in settings largely devoid of institutional mechanisms and cultural norms for fostering scalable interventions such as in Africa.
Regrettably discussions of how to address climate change have often focused far more on mitigation (reducing green house gas emissions) than adaptation (coping with the storms, floods, sea-level rise and other impacts that climate change brings). The limited discussions on adaptation have also given little attention to cities. But many cities in Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean are at high risk from climate change- even as they (or the nation in which they are located) have contributed very little to green house gas emissions.
There is every need now to discuss how to manage the impact of climate change on Nigeria’s urban water resources because of Nigeria’s high dependence upon natural resources. This vulnerability relates to many natural and human phenomena; including climate change and variability; pollution, population growth, water scarcity; and knowledge gaps. The development of an adaptation framework for these issues are urgently needed in Nigeria as in other parts of Africa, in order to alleviate the high risks faced by the country’s ecosystems, and to inform and strengthen the coping strategies of poor urban communities who may be less capable of adapting to climate change and other risks.
No doubt, water remains the most vital for human survival. Throughout Nigeria, people are becoming increasingly affected by the degradation of water sources. Disasters from floods, sanitary pollutions and droughts are ruining the lives and livelihood of many, and have recently been closely linked with global climate change. In this context is the fact that despite the critical importance of water resources to Nigeria, there have been very few studies of the effects of global warming or its management especially groundwater resources.
The effects of climate change have already been felt in many parts of the country with the modifications of the intensity and seasonal nature of the rains, the elevation of average annual temperatures, and the increased frequency of widespread, high impact weather phenomena including drought and flooding.
Floods in particular, especially in coastal cities like Lagos and Port Harcourt, and other parts of the country would still remain a major challenge because of the failure of leadership in these cities. Buildings, roads, infrastructure and other paved areas now obstruct natural drainage channels while greed have eclipsed provision for and use of parks and other open spaces as places to safely accommodate flood water from unusually serious storms. The result today is that rainfalls no longer easily infiltrate the soil- hence huge run-off. Worsening the situation is that heavy or prolonged rainfall now rapidly overwhelms most of our cities’ poorly maintained and insufficient drainage systems as those existing are full of silt and clogged with garbage.
As a cross-sectional element, water remains a central part of any vulnerability analyses dealing with climate change. Associated with drought and flood risk, water is a challenge represented by the increasing scarcity of the liquid so essential for human life. There is therefore need for the rational use of water in the broadest sense—including water saving and reuse and the recharging of aquifers etc.
In this context are the traditional problems of decaying water treatment plants and water pipes, insufficient capacity, and poor quality and quantity of water supply; lack of management capacity because of neglecting non-technical factors; weak financial structure and difficulty of new investments, because of high rate of non-revenue water, low water fees which cannot recover the costs, and over staffing, etc that are common in most water utilities in Nigeria.
A typical case is the Lagos State Water Corporation. Here, the water distribution network can only reach one in every three of the 15 million inhabitants of the city. Yet, they projected population growth of 4% per annum of the city means that the city’s water demand, will double by the year 2020. The cost of meeting current and projected demand has been put at around $2.5 billion over the next 20 years.
Generally, cities in Africa are worse hit because they do not only have limited means with which to expand the water, and maintain the quality but they also need to expand water supply services to meet the ever increasing needs of industry and to support growing population with varying distribution of population and settlement patterns in rural and urban settings. The consequence is that as the world remains on track to meeting the 2015 MDG water targets, disparities continue in sub-Saharan Africa which has the lowest coverage and is not on track for the MDG target.
There is therefore the need to cushion the shock by the diffusion of adaptation measures as a proactive response because the failure to act would heighten the risk of severe damage to the economy and other physical, chemical, and biological systems; all with severe negative consequences for Nigerians. This should start with a vulnerability analysis of the impacts of climate change and the putting in place of a viable action plan with efficient adaptation measures in every state of the country.
The agony in flooded neighborhoods
As the rainy season arrives once again, anxiety is mounting daily over the extent of flooding that is likely to be experienced in Port Harcourt, Lagos and other Nigerian cities. As this prevails one question reigns: How can poor households escape the monstrous flood that now more than ever before over-run their homes on regular basis? Beyond traditional concerns of leaking roofs in poor neighborhoods, one major concern that has eclipsed the former is the flooding of neighborhoods. Worst affected being densely populated low income urban neighborhoods.
In Benin, Owerri, Calabar and other parts of urban Nigeria flooding has become a modern day menace. Flood in particular, especially in Nigerian coastal cities is an extant major challenge. Though climate change related, it is also related to changes in built-up areas. The building of infrastructure, residential and office accommodations, as well as paved surfaces now obstruct natural drainage channels, and eclipsing the provision already made for, and use of parks and other open spaces as places to safely accommodate flood water from unusually serious storms. The result today is that rainfalls no longer easily infiltrate the soil; hence rapidly generating huge run-offs. Also high intensity or prolonged rainfalls now rapidly overwhelms local areas because of poorly maintained and insufficient drainage systems as those in existence are full of silt and clogged with garbage.
In Port Harcourt city and its environs, unpredictable high intensity rainfalls now results in mass flooding of neighborhoods. In such areas, one recurring problem is the overflow and clogging of latrines, as well as the erosion of pit and septic tank structures. The major problems arising from these are surface water contamination and loss of accessibility to the latrine during flood. Often, the most affected are the urban poor who live in densely populated neighborhoods where households share on-site latrines located outside their living rooms. For women in such areas, this is an issue as loss of access also translates to loss of privacy for defecation. The result is that most residents are now compelled to “wrap and throw” their excreta into runoffs; and further worsening the health risks and retarding local gains in sanitation coverage.
From Lagos, Tessy Igomu writing for the SUN reports that each day, the picture is nauseating. Open sewage tanks and pipes oozing acrid odor; blocked drainages and gutters overflowing with garbage as well as disused household items and pure water sachets have become sights that Lagos State residents daily behold during rainy season. To many Lagos residents, a cloudy sky only signals one thing: Prepare to empty your waste bin into any available drainage. ‘Agbara a gbe lo,’ meaning, the flood will carry it away, is an easy chant on the people’s lips in defense of such dirty habit.
According to a man called Rasaki, who earns a living vulcanizing vehicles, the dirt from the Lagos canal, as well as sandbags stacked along its perimeters have, in recent weeks, found their way back to the tertiary drainage. “We are afraid of what might happen. The high mould of sand usually rolls back into the dredged channels with so much noise that makes the water overflow the canal with force. Every day, the man that operates the dredger would come and switch it on. After that, he would just disappear for the day,” he complained. Voicing her fears, Nkechi Ogom, a salon operator at Lawanson area of the metropolis complained that they are yet to enjoy reprieve from flood since the state government started dredging the Idi-Araba canal in the area. “This canal runs from here to Mushin and empties its water into the lagoon. We live in fear because no serious work has been done on it. They just demolished houses close to it, brought out the sand and left it that way. I must tell you that we are afraid here”, she lamented. The lamentation is widespread in all the areas where major drainages snake through in the state. Residents of such areas actually live with bated breath when the sky darkens.However, for madam Glory in Mushin; concerns over latrine and latrine wastes are topmost. She recalls “Last year, tens of floating polythene bags sailed into our rooms with the invading flood, when we tried to remove them, their contents, mostly “shit” poured all over the place. Even after the rain, the problem persisted as we all had diarrhea”.
In Amadi Ama and Diobu areas of Port Harcourt, incidents of floating “shits” during flood is common. Residents are worried that fellow residents could afford to punish others by throwing their wastes into flood. According to Mr. Amakiri, “If only I had the funds, I would have parked out of the place to a better place; rainfall season is a bad time for us because of the floods”. He continued…” The water that comes, always come with sand and other dirt including wastes from toilets, this makes the whole place filthy and unsafe”.
For Angela, who lives around Slaughter area in Port Harcourt, “The toilets are clogged and washed over during flood. You won’t even find a place to excrete till after one week or two after the flood”. Wading through flooded compounds in search of good toilet to use during flooding gives Moses some concern, according to him; “My pregnant wife suffered so much in April because of no latrines as our toilets were submerged and unusable, it was hell”
Though residents agree that the state governments in Lagos and Port Harcourt are doing well to check the flood problem, they however gives thumps up to LatrineTec, a private company that works on ecological latrine emptying, upgrading and short listing of adaptable latrines; and training services etc. The company partners with other groups to improve public health, personal dignity and the quality of the living environment. Its specific areas of operation include the emptying of septic tanks.
LatrineTec is currently promoting the “Flood Resilient Household Latrine”; an innovative design with improved adaptive features to the traditional pit and the pour-flush system. Its designers in delivering it were not unmindful of the fact that certain latrine components are vulnerable to flood damage and that some are most likely to lead the users to abandon the latrine hence have adopted an improved version of the Bangladesh raised latrines.
Therefore the flood resilient latrine as being promoted by the company retains improved design and more careful installation that makes it adaptable. It also has unique internal and external components and unlike other sanitation options, it retains enormous flexibility with great ease of adaptability based on the fact that it could be built in-door or outdoor; operated on either single or twin pits that are well sealed; and appropriate for both rural and urban settings as well as being accessible to even disable persons and respects privacy.
When indoors, the floor does not have to be broken open periodically for emptying the pit hence encouraging families to use a higher standard of fittings and materials, thus increasing the prestige attached to it. If inside the house, people can visit the toilet in complete privacy without wading through flooded compounds to access it.
Based in Port Harcourt, LatrineTec according to the Marketing Manager Mr. Emma Ekong, the company is currently partnering with some NGOs to engage landlords to upgrade their house latrines and make them resilient to floods. He also unveils the company’s plan to partner with the Port Harcourt City and Obio-Akpor Councils in this regard.
Till this is achieved, the agony probably lingers.
In Benin, Owerri, Calabar and other parts of urban Nigeria flooding has become a modern day menace. Flood in particular, especially in Nigerian coastal cities is an extant major challenge. Though climate change related, it is also related to changes in built-up areas. The building of infrastructure, residential and office accommodations, as well as paved surfaces now obstruct natural drainage channels, and eclipsing the provision already made for, and use of parks and other open spaces as places to safely accommodate flood water from unusually serious storms. The result today is that rainfalls no longer easily infiltrate the soil; hence rapidly generating huge run-offs. Also high intensity or prolonged rainfalls now rapidly overwhelms local areas because of poorly maintained and insufficient drainage systems as those in existence are full of silt and clogged with garbage.
In Port Harcourt city and its environs, unpredictable high intensity rainfalls now results in mass flooding of neighborhoods. In such areas, one recurring problem is the overflow and clogging of latrines, as well as the erosion of pit and septic tank structures. The major problems arising from these are surface water contamination and loss of accessibility to the latrine during flood. Often, the most affected are the urban poor who live in densely populated neighborhoods where households share on-site latrines located outside their living rooms. For women in such areas, this is an issue as loss of access also translates to loss of privacy for defecation. The result is that most residents are now compelled to “wrap and throw” their excreta into runoffs; and further worsening the health risks and retarding local gains in sanitation coverage.
From Lagos, Tessy Igomu writing for the SUN reports that each day, the picture is nauseating. Open sewage tanks and pipes oozing acrid odor; blocked drainages and gutters overflowing with garbage as well as disused household items and pure water sachets have become sights that Lagos State residents daily behold during rainy season. To many Lagos residents, a cloudy sky only signals one thing: Prepare to empty your waste bin into any available drainage. ‘Agbara a gbe lo,’ meaning, the flood will carry it away, is an easy chant on the people’s lips in defense of such dirty habit.
According to a man called Rasaki, who earns a living vulcanizing vehicles, the dirt from the Lagos canal, as well as sandbags stacked along its perimeters have, in recent weeks, found their way back to the tertiary drainage. “We are afraid of what might happen. The high mould of sand usually rolls back into the dredged channels with so much noise that makes the water overflow the canal with force. Every day, the man that operates the dredger would come and switch it on. After that, he would just disappear for the day,” he complained. Voicing her fears, Nkechi Ogom, a salon operator at Lawanson area of the metropolis complained that they are yet to enjoy reprieve from flood since the state government started dredging the Idi-Araba canal in the area. “This canal runs from here to Mushin and empties its water into the lagoon. We live in fear because no serious work has been done on it. They just demolished houses close to it, brought out the sand and left it that way. I must tell you that we are afraid here”, she lamented. The lamentation is widespread in all the areas where major drainages snake through in the state. Residents of such areas actually live with bated breath when the sky darkens.However, for madam Glory in Mushin; concerns over latrine and latrine wastes are topmost. She recalls “Last year, tens of floating polythene bags sailed into our rooms with the invading flood, when we tried to remove them, their contents, mostly “shit” poured all over the place. Even after the rain, the problem persisted as we all had diarrhea”.
In Amadi Ama and Diobu areas of Port Harcourt, incidents of floating “shits” during flood is common. Residents are worried that fellow residents could afford to punish others by throwing their wastes into flood. According to Mr. Amakiri, “If only I had the funds, I would have parked out of the place to a better place; rainfall season is a bad time for us because of the floods”. He continued…” The water that comes, always come with sand and other dirt including wastes from toilets, this makes the whole place filthy and unsafe”.
For Angela, who lives around Slaughter area in Port Harcourt, “The toilets are clogged and washed over during flood. You won’t even find a place to excrete till after one week or two after the flood”. Wading through flooded compounds in search of good toilet to use during flooding gives Moses some concern, according to him; “My pregnant wife suffered so much in April because of no latrines as our toilets were submerged and unusable, it was hell”
Though residents agree that the state governments in Lagos and Port Harcourt are doing well to check the flood problem, they however gives thumps up to LatrineTec, a private company that works on ecological latrine emptying, upgrading and short listing of adaptable latrines; and training services etc. The company partners with other groups to improve public health, personal dignity and the quality of the living environment. Its specific areas of operation include the emptying of septic tanks.
LatrineTec is currently promoting the “Flood Resilient Household Latrine”; an innovative design with improved adaptive features to the traditional pit and the pour-flush system. Its designers in delivering it were not unmindful of the fact that certain latrine components are vulnerable to flood damage and that some are most likely to lead the users to abandon the latrine hence have adopted an improved version of the Bangladesh raised latrines.
Therefore the flood resilient latrine as being promoted by the company retains improved design and more careful installation that makes it adaptable. It also has unique internal and external components and unlike other sanitation options, it retains enormous flexibility with great ease of adaptability based on the fact that it could be built in-door or outdoor; operated on either single or twin pits that are well sealed; and appropriate for both rural and urban settings as well as being accessible to even disable persons and respects privacy.
When indoors, the floor does not have to be broken open periodically for emptying the pit hence encouraging families to use a higher standard of fittings and materials, thus increasing the prestige attached to it. If inside the house, people can visit the toilet in complete privacy without wading through flooded compounds to access it.
Based in Port Harcourt, LatrineTec according to the Marketing Manager Mr. Emma Ekong, the company is currently partnering with some NGOs to engage landlords to upgrade their house latrines and make them resilient to floods. He also unveils the company’s plan to partner with the Port Harcourt City and Obio-Akpor Councils in this regard.
Till this is achieved, the agony probably lingers.
The travails of Nigerian Rice
One food that has become a major source of calories for the average Nigerian is rice. It is becoming difficult to find rice missing on the daily menu of most Nigerians or the refreshment list of important ceremonies such as wedding, naming ceremonies, wedding anniversaries, burial ceremonies, birthday parties and many others.
In Nigerian markets, both those in the rural and urban areas, rice is a major grocery that often occupies a conspicuous position. It knows no religion, and does not discriminate against any tribe or race in Nigeria. Both the Nigerian rich and poor eat it, though the contents of the preparation may be different. Nigerian traders, especially those who trade on it would be in a better position to know their margin of profit.
Rice can be grown over a wide range of ecological conditions, and is cultivated in virtually all the agro-ecological zones in Nigeria. Nigeria encompasses four major agro-ecological zones, with rainfall diminishing along a South-North gradient. The forest zone borders the coast in the South, and going northward gives way to the Guinea and Sudan Savannah. Nigeria’s North Eastern fringe falls within the Sahel zone.
Though rice contributes a significant proportion of the food requirements of the population, production capacity is far below the national requirements for rice. In order to meet the increasing demand for rice, Nigeria has had to resort to importation of milled rice to bridge the gap between domestic demand and supply. Nigeria’s rice import is paid for in foreign currency.
A combination of various factors seems to have triggered the structural increase in rice consumption. Like elsewhere, urbanization appears to be the most important cause of the shift in consumer preferences towards rice in Nigeria. Rice is easy to prepare compared to other traditional cereals, thereby reducing the chore of food preparation and fitting more easily in the urban lifestyles of rich and poor alike. Rice indeed is no longer a luxury food in Nigeria and has become a major staple food for many households.
Demand for rice in Nigeria is, however, growing faster than for any other major staples, with consumption broadening across all socio-economic classes, including the poor. Substitution of rice for coarse grains and traditional roots and tubers has fuelled growth in demand at an annual rate of 5.6 per cent between 1961 and 1992. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) had in 2003 projected growth in rice consumption for Nigeria beyond year 2000 to remain as high as 4.5 per cent per annum.
Nigerians have been identified to consume about 5.4 million metric tons of rice annually (valued at $9.2 billion at current prices), while local production only amounts to about 2.3 million metric tons per year, and that the remaining 3.1 million metric tons is imported, making Nigeria the second largest importer of rice in the world.
The key problems facing the rice production in Nigeria has been identified to consist of lack of competitiveness resulting from low and uneconomic productivity, poor access to expensive inputs (especially fertilizers and credit), low capacity to meet quality standards and little or no encouragement of private sector participation. Also, increasing changes in rainfall patterns as a result of climate change is already threatening local rice cultivation and making it pretty difficult to plough rice fields after the very first rain or make multiple harvests in one year.
The resulting harvest shrinkage and diminishing income, is further exacerbated by endemic water mismanagement and inappropriate land use by farmers which have led to massive soil erosion and loss of the soil’s productive capacity. Also, limited potential for dry season rice cultivation through soil and water conservation, and the non-employment of rain water harvesting technologies have continued to widen the increasing demand-supply gap for rice. The consequence is threatened food security and livelihood for hundreds of local rice farmers in Nigeria.
Generally, food production in sub – Saharan Africa is prone to multiple risks since it is based on rain – fed systems hence imposing the onerous challenge of producing adequate food on developing countries to satisfy her growing population. This has contributed immensely to a widening gap between food supply and demand However, efforts in the present problematic rain fed agricultural production need to be complemented through dry season farming. This is absolutely necessary because the productive realm of the small scale producer needs expansion to infuse higher productivity. Then may then query what has happened to the fadamas?
In a frail attempt to reverse this trend, the Olusegun Obasanjo’s government had initiated some “farmer-friendly policies” under the Presidential Initiative on Rice. One of such policies was the high import tariffs on imported milled rice. But the crumbling of that initiative very shortly after the end of the tenure of that government exposed the weaknesses or sincerity of those behind it.
With less than one year in office President Umaru Yar'Adua and the 36 state governors at an emergency meeting in Abuja, had decided to import 500,000 tonnes of rice up to a value of US$600 million from Thailand to curtail the effect of the global rise in food prices on Nigeria.
According to the then governor of Ondo State, Olusegun Agagu; "The whole essence of this importation in the short term is to create availability and reduce the skyrocketing prices," He further said: "We cannot say there is famine in Nigeria yet, but the prices of foodstuffs are going up and availability in a number of places is diminishing," During the period of that announcement, the price of a bag of rice on markets in Nigeria had doubled and tripled to between US$85 and US$102. Nigerian traders were reported to have bought stocks of rice and grains from around the West and Central Africa region. The government imported rice was to be sold around US$50 per 50kg bag.But Ahmed Rabiu, then vice president of Kano Chamber of Commerce, in an interview had dismissed the massive import order as senseless. According to him : "It would have taken a minimum of three months to import and distribute the rice to the people that needed it and by then many farmers will have started harvesting their crops which will make the import worthless," However, one week later, that is after the initial decision to import rice, the Agriculture Minister Abba Sayyadi Ruma rescinded the import decision and instead approved the investment of US$85 million in a credit scheme meant to support local rice processing as part of measures to attain food sufficiency. The government also suspended duties on rice imports for six months and ordered the release of 11,000 metric tonnes of grains from its strategic food reserves for sale at one-sixth its market value. Sabo Nanono, head of Kano chapter of Nigeria's commercial farmers union had said the decision to invest in the domestic agriculture sector was the right one, even though it will not achieve as much populist enthusiasm as the rice imports. He estimated that Nigeria has conditions favourable enough to become a net exporter of rice, given the right tools, seeds and irrigation. According to him: "It is a wise decision that the government reversed the idea of importing the rice" Nigeria, a former agrarian nation, abandoned agriculture in the early 1980s when the government refocused the economy on oil exploration, which now accounts for more than 90 per cent of total government revenue. Sadly, the bulk of this revenue is stolen by politicians and their cronies. The consequence is that today, according to the agriculture ministry, 91 million Nigerians representing 65 percent of the country's population are food insecure.
As noted earlier, rice is grown across the 6 geopolitical or 4 ecological zones of Nigeria. In the east, Uboma is the major rice producing community in Imo State. The community is noted for its lowland rice fields, the biggest in the entire state. Rice here are transplanted or seeded directly in the soil on level to slightly sloping fields with variable depth and duration of flooding depending on rainfall. Most of these farms are located mainly along the flooded valleys of the Imo River. Most of the rice farms are privately owned as they are cultivated in private family lands. Rice farmers tend to be small-scale, with farms of 1-2 ha.
It is however sad that instead of giving these farmers the maximum support they need, both the Imo state and the Ihitte Uboma local government council have preferred to fuddle at the expense of such important crop. Policy somersault and inconsistencies have continued to undermine the genuine efforts of the rice farmers to produce enough rice for everybody.
Instead of genuine assistance in form of extension programs and micro-finance or credit facilities the Udenwa administration (1999-2007) was contented in manual distributing of unsustainable items like rain coats, boots, hoe and shovel to the farmers. The road project planned to run from the Umuahia-Owerri road to Isinweke to the rice farms in Onicha Uboma was abandoned, while no attempt was made to rehabilitate the rice mills.
Since after the expiration of the Udenwa misrule, the new government led by Ikedi Ohakim is yet to define his strategies for the rice fields in Uboma. What we now hear is that Governor Ikedi Ohakim has guaranteed the sum of N1 billion to the privately owned Cooperative Federation of Imo State to import about two million bags, of 100,000 metric tons of rice to Imo State.According to Rev. Dr, Geoffrey Maduabuchi Samuel, who is the President of the Cooperative Federation of Imo State, the shipment would commence in May 2009 and will run till December 2009. He posited that because of the guarantee given by Governor Ohakim, cooperative federation of Imo has stationed one of its officials in Thailand for the past three months to supervise the processing of the guarantee, bagging, loading and shipment of the consignment. What a shame?
Why not invest or guarantee such a lump sum in rice fields in Uboma and parts of Aro Ndizogu? Sadly, it is misplaced priorities on crucial issues like this that have constituted a clog in the development and expansion of the many rice fields and other crops in Nigeria. In the words of Alhaji Sabo Nanono, “Nigeria has conditions favourable enough to become a net exporter of rice, given the right tools, seeds and irrigation” But, kindly, the NGO-Rural Africa Water Development Project (RAWDP) is today in partnership with the rice farmers is designing an improvement program that will be beneficial to all parties. The outcome, if successful will be cheery.
{Please note that references have been cited for this work, and You may contact the author directly on joachimezeji@aol.com to get the list}
In Nigerian markets, both those in the rural and urban areas, rice is a major grocery that often occupies a conspicuous position. It knows no religion, and does not discriminate against any tribe or race in Nigeria. Both the Nigerian rich and poor eat it, though the contents of the preparation may be different. Nigerian traders, especially those who trade on it would be in a better position to know their margin of profit.
Rice can be grown over a wide range of ecological conditions, and is cultivated in virtually all the agro-ecological zones in Nigeria. Nigeria encompasses four major agro-ecological zones, with rainfall diminishing along a South-North gradient. The forest zone borders the coast in the South, and going northward gives way to the Guinea and Sudan Savannah. Nigeria’s North Eastern fringe falls within the Sahel zone.
Though rice contributes a significant proportion of the food requirements of the population, production capacity is far below the national requirements for rice. In order to meet the increasing demand for rice, Nigeria has had to resort to importation of milled rice to bridge the gap between domestic demand and supply. Nigeria’s rice import is paid for in foreign currency.
A combination of various factors seems to have triggered the structural increase in rice consumption. Like elsewhere, urbanization appears to be the most important cause of the shift in consumer preferences towards rice in Nigeria. Rice is easy to prepare compared to other traditional cereals, thereby reducing the chore of food preparation and fitting more easily in the urban lifestyles of rich and poor alike. Rice indeed is no longer a luxury food in Nigeria and has become a major staple food for many households.
Demand for rice in Nigeria is, however, growing faster than for any other major staples, with consumption broadening across all socio-economic classes, including the poor. Substitution of rice for coarse grains and traditional roots and tubers has fuelled growth in demand at an annual rate of 5.6 per cent between 1961 and 1992. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) had in 2003 projected growth in rice consumption for Nigeria beyond year 2000 to remain as high as 4.5 per cent per annum.
Nigerians have been identified to consume about 5.4 million metric tons of rice annually (valued at $9.2 billion at current prices), while local production only amounts to about 2.3 million metric tons per year, and that the remaining 3.1 million metric tons is imported, making Nigeria the second largest importer of rice in the world.
The key problems facing the rice production in Nigeria has been identified to consist of lack of competitiveness resulting from low and uneconomic productivity, poor access to expensive inputs (especially fertilizers and credit), low capacity to meet quality standards and little or no encouragement of private sector participation. Also, increasing changes in rainfall patterns as a result of climate change is already threatening local rice cultivation and making it pretty difficult to plough rice fields after the very first rain or make multiple harvests in one year.
The resulting harvest shrinkage and diminishing income, is further exacerbated by endemic water mismanagement and inappropriate land use by farmers which have led to massive soil erosion and loss of the soil’s productive capacity. Also, limited potential for dry season rice cultivation through soil and water conservation, and the non-employment of rain water harvesting technologies have continued to widen the increasing demand-supply gap for rice. The consequence is threatened food security and livelihood for hundreds of local rice farmers in Nigeria.
Generally, food production in sub – Saharan Africa is prone to multiple risks since it is based on rain – fed systems hence imposing the onerous challenge of producing adequate food on developing countries to satisfy her growing population. This has contributed immensely to a widening gap between food supply and demand However, efforts in the present problematic rain fed agricultural production need to be complemented through dry season farming. This is absolutely necessary because the productive realm of the small scale producer needs expansion to infuse higher productivity. Then may then query what has happened to the fadamas?
In a frail attempt to reverse this trend, the Olusegun Obasanjo’s government had initiated some “farmer-friendly policies” under the Presidential Initiative on Rice. One of such policies was the high import tariffs on imported milled rice. But the crumbling of that initiative very shortly after the end of the tenure of that government exposed the weaknesses or sincerity of those behind it.
With less than one year in office President Umaru Yar'Adua and the 36 state governors at an emergency meeting in Abuja, had decided to import 500,000 tonnes of rice up to a value of US$600 million from Thailand to curtail the effect of the global rise in food prices on Nigeria.
According to the then governor of Ondo State, Olusegun Agagu; "The whole essence of this importation in the short term is to create availability and reduce the skyrocketing prices," He further said: "We cannot say there is famine in Nigeria yet, but the prices of foodstuffs are going up and availability in a number of places is diminishing," During the period of that announcement, the price of a bag of rice on markets in Nigeria had doubled and tripled to between US$85 and US$102. Nigerian traders were reported to have bought stocks of rice and grains from around the West and Central Africa region. The government imported rice was to be sold around US$50 per 50kg bag.But Ahmed Rabiu, then vice president of Kano Chamber of Commerce, in an interview had dismissed the massive import order as senseless. According to him : "It would have taken a minimum of three months to import and distribute the rice to the people that needed it and by then many farmers will have started harvesting their crops which will make the import worthless," However, one week later, that is after the initial decision to import rice, the Agriculture Minister Abba Sayyadi Ruma rescinded the import decision and instead approved the investment of US$85 million in a credit scheme meant to support local rice processing as part of measures to attain food sufficiency. The government also suspended duties on rice imports for six months and ordered the release of 11,000 metric tonnes of grains from its strategic food reserves for sale at one-sixth its market value. Sabo Nanono, head of Kano chapter of Nigeria's commercial farmers union had said the decision to invest in the domestic agriculture sector was the right one, even though it will not achieve as much populist enthusiasm as the rice imports. He estimated that Nigeria has conditions favourable enough to become a net exporter of rice, given the right tools, seeds and irrigation. According to him: "It is a wise decision that the government reversed the idea of importing the rice" Nigeria, a former agrarian nation, abandoned agriculture in the early 1980s when the government refocused the economy on oil exploration, which now accounts for more than 90 per cent of total government revenue. Sadly, the bulk of this revenue is stolen by politicians and their cronies. The consequence is that today, according to the agriculture ministry, 91 million Nigerians representing 65 percent of the country's population are food insecure.
As noted earlier, rice is grown across the 6 geopolitical or 4 ecological zones of Nigeria. In the east, Uboma is the major rice producing community in Imo State. The community is noted for its lowland rice fields, the biggest in the entire state. Rice here are transplanted or seeded directly in the soil on level to slightly sloping fields with variable depth and duration of flooding depending on rainfall. Most of these farms are located mainly along the flooded valleys of the Imo River. Most of the rice farms are privately owned as they are cultivated in private family lands. Rice farmers tend to be small-scale, with farms of 1-2 ha.
It is however sad that instead of giving these farmers the maximum support they need, both the Imo state and the Ihitte Uboma local government council have preferred to fuddle at the expense of such important crop. Policy somersault and inconsistencies have continued to undermine the genuine efforts of the rice farmers to produce enough rice for everybody.
Instead of genuine assistance in form of extension programs and micro-finance or credit facilities the Udenwa administration (1999-2007) was contented in manual distributing of unsustainable items like rain coats, boots, hoe and shovel to the farmers. The road project planned to run from the Umuahia-Owerri road to Isinweke to the rice farms in Onicha Uboma was abandoned, while no attempt was made to rehabilitate the rice mills.
Since after the expiration of the Udenwa misrule, the new government led by Ikedi Ohakim is yet to define his strategies for the rice fields in Uboma. What we now hear is that Governor Ikedi Ohakim has guaranteed the sum of N1 billion to the privately owned Cooperative Federation of Imo State to import about two million bags, of 100,000 metric tons of rice to Imo State.According to Rev. Dr, Geoffrey Maduabuchi Samuel, who is the President of the Cooperative Federation of Imo State, the shipment would commence in May 2009 and will run till December 2009. He posited that because of the guarantee given by Governor Ohakim, cooperative federation of Imo has stationed one of its officials in Thailand for the past three months to supervise the processing of the guarantee, bagging, loading and shipment of the consignment. What a shame?
Why not invest or guarantee such a lump sum in rice fields in Uboma and parts of Aro Ndizogu? Sadly, it is misplaced priorities on crucial issues like this that have constituted a clog in the development and expansion of the many rice fields and other crops in Nigeria. In the words of Alhaji Sabo Nanono, “Nigeria has conditions favourable enough to become a net exporter of rice, given the right tools, seeds and irrigation” But, kindly, the NGO-Rural Africa Water Development Project (RAWDP) is today in partnership with the rice farmers is designing an improvement program that will be beneficial to all parties. The outcome, if successful will be cheery.
{Please note that references have been cited for this work, and You may contact the author directly on joachimezeji@aol.com to get the list}
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