Lucky Obukohwo Reporting
Gbolekekro Women Empowerment and Development Organization (GWEDO) in partnership with Global Greengrants Fund has sensitized the inhabitants of Gelegele, an oil rich exploring community in Ovia South West Local Government Area of Edo State on safe water to stem the spread of water borne diseases in the community.
Addressing stakeholders at the one day stakeholders training on “Water Crisis and Pollution programme”, the coordinator of GWEDO, Comrade Cynthia Ebiere Bright, said some of the ailments suffered by those in the oil producing communities are usually from the water they drink, which is polluted.
She said that multinational oil exploration companies have impacted negatively on their host communities through their activities, such as gas flaring and oil spillage adding that, when these are released, they find their ways back into the community streams which they drink.
Comrade Bright also maintained that, despite the activities of the exploration companies, individual in the community still has a way of impacting on the community negatively by setting up a dump site closely to the river side which is their only source of drinking water.
She said when it rains, the rain can easily wash the dirt back into the stream and when taking into the system, can lead to severe ailments.
“We have already seen the impact and we have made them to understand the effects when they take it into their systems.
“Some of them have suffered stomachache, intestinal disorders and miscarriages due to this polluted water and they likened it to black magic but today, you can see that it was an eye opener for the community people when they gave them a break down of what the water crisis is and what water pollution is, they were so interested to know that even some of their activities are parts of the water pollution like indiscriminate means of waste disposal which some of us always do when we have dump site close to the river and that is the river you want to fetch water to do your cooking and that is the same river you want to take as your drinking water.
“You have already known that once you have a dump site close to your river and there is a rainfall, it washes those dirt into the river and at the end, we still go to that same river to get our cooking and drinking water”, Bright said.
Speaking on the topic”Understanding Water Crisis and Pollution, Comrade Dele Hunsun said the federal government is not doing enough to provide good and quality water to the people in the oil producing region of the country.
“The government should be alive to their responsibility. These are communities that have been battling with environmental degradation and the topic today is on water pollution and the impact on the community life.
“All the federal government agencies, we have the Ministry of Water Resources, they should be alive to their responsibility. We have the Ministry of Community Health, is under the Ministry of Health, they too should be alive to their responsibility.
“I think these are the issues. We will continuously engage government to provide the necessary support to the vulnerable communities especially in the Niger Delta”, Hunsun said.