By Badmus Shina
Clean water is very necessary to the sustainability of life, hence the saying, “water is life.” It’s palpable that human beings cannot live a healthy life if their source of water is compromised.
It is no longer news that many communities in Nigeria don’t have access to drinkable water or even the resources for such, hence they drink the water that is available to their reach, not minding whether it’s pure or not.
The Niger Delta is one of such places that don’t have contact with drinkable water. Residents of some of the communities in this place get their water from the river.
There are insinuations that the river where they get their water from for domestic use, they also defecate in it and have their bath there, as well.
Looking at the need for clean water, a group under the aegis of Ijaw Women of America Inc (IWA), a foreign-based organization, which aims to assist indigent people and rural communities in the Niger Delta, displayed a philanthropic gesture, which is worthy of emulation and devoid of self-aggrandizement.
The group decided to alleviate the suffering of the people with the provision of 5 Solar Panel Powered Clean Borehole Water in 5 Ijaw Communities that include: Opuama in Southern Ijaw LGA Bayelsa State; Epelleama in Opobo Nkoro LGA Rivers State; Arogbo in Ese-Edo LGA of Ondo State; Elem Tombia in Rivers State; and Aven in Patani North LGA, Delta State.
These communities were prone to different kind of diseases due to the fact that they lacked drinkable water. But the IWA did not only supply drinkable water to these places, they also created a platform through solar energy to ensure the supply would be constant.
IWA commissioned the projects in the communities on Monday, June 24. They dubbed it, “clean water for all Ijaw land.”
They wanted the people to start benefiting from what they had long dreamed of – drinkable water.
Speaking to our reporter, the PRO of IWA, who spoke on behalf of the President of the organisation, Mrs. Eunice Bratua Apreala, said that their organization was committed to do more in Ijaw communities.
She explained that the Ijaw community was one that needed all hands on deck in order for development to land in the Niger Delta.
The IWA however said they aim to have membership in all the seven or more Ijaw speaking states in Nigeria.
Their focus was on Ijaw communities in Lagos State, Ondo state, Edo State, Delta State, Bayelsa state, Rivers State, Akwa-Ibom state and beyond.
To ensure they make meaningful impact, the IWA mission was in communities that were bereft of government presence.
It would be needless to say that crude oil activities continue to taint the waterways which have caused health and environmental hazards to the people. A need for improvement brought to subsist, and this was the Solar Panel Powered Clean Borehole Water.
The IWA had love to unite the Ijaw and bring about the change the people were dire in need. Apreala narrated that the places the ‘water well’ was planted were brought to them by their current members, as according to her, “Members that are from Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta State and Ondo states.”
She added that their members were over one hundred in the United States but mainly women.
According to her, “We are Ijaws no matter where we live and we love and care about Ijaw land.”
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