POTABLE WATER, A PANACEA TO MILLEENNIUM DEVELOPMENT

TARGET B: Halve, by 2015, the proportions of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
INTRODUCTION
Water, we all know is a source of life and as such must be pure and of good quality. Sustainability of any human community hinges on adequate supply of safe drinking water, which conforms to the acceptable standard, at a price that is affordable to all. This makes the process economy a paramount factor in the treatment of water. Consequent upon this, the need to eliminate the existing paradox between the costs of water treatment, which is very low, is imminent. The most often polluted of all the environmental phases are the aquatic systems. This is because contaminants in the air, soil, or on land ultimately end up in aquatic systems via local precipitation water run off and leaching of rocks and wastes. Most Nigerian industries discharge their untreated effluents (liquid wastes) through drains or canals into the nearest water body with little or no treatment, the traditional view being that liquid wastes would, like gaseous emissions quickly disperse and become diluted to harmless concentrations. That point of view is no longer tenable, given current understanding of the mechanisms of bio-concentrations and of stratification.
Water Supply in Akungba-Akoko (University town)
There is no city in Nigeria even in the world that can boast of efficient and effective water supply system. The various water supply schemes in Nigeria states are not consistence and sometimes when it is available it is often not in sufficient quantity which leaves the majority of the people having to look for other sources to get safe drinking water. The above situation defines the state of water supply in Akungba-Akoko (University town). The public water supply is erratic, unreliable and in some cases, inaccessible, thus resulting in high dependency on supplementary sources.
The water supply in Nigeria has been hampered by pollution, climate change amongst others. For example Ose Water Scheme designed to supply Owo, Oba-Akoko and its environs is drying up due to increased evaporation.
Supply of Water and Sanitation in Nigeria
In November 2001, it was reported that polluted water supplies led to an outbreak of cholera in Kano, causing more than 600 deaths (African Discovery BBC., 2001). Other problems associated with the supply of water and sanitation includes the following;
. Lack of attention to maintenance and sustainability;
. Inadequate coverage of pipe borne water distribution network;
. Poor quality and increased time cost in the process of getting water for daily needs;
. Shortage of skilled labour in the treatment of water for human consumption;
. Inadequate funding of the water project on the part of government;
. People attitude towards government or public property;
. Low revenue collection from consumers coupled with the increase in population/area.
The aforementioned problems must be adequately tackled in order to achieve Target B of Goal 7 of the MDGs.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR TARGET B
In order to meet the Goal 7 Target B of the Millennium Development Goals before the year, 2015, the following recommendations should be adhered to:
. Government at all levels should endeavor to repair/ replace the obsolete and outdated pumps at our various water works in order to ensure availability of safe drinking water.
. Government should endeavor to repair/replace damaged pipes and laying of new water pipelines to the entire length and breadth of the country.
. Competent and highly skilled personnel, chemists or engineers should be employed at the helms of affairs of our various water works to ensure adequate and safe drinking water to the consumers.
. Government should enact laws to prevent discharge of industrial effluents into the water bodies or better still; the effluents should be treated prior discharge into the water.
. Government should encourage the use of simple waste water treatment such as, adsorption processes against conventional water treatment which is unreliable and involve high cost of recovery of the adsorbent (carbon or charcoal) used.
. Government should release funds inform of grants, scholarships to researchers in sciences and technologies in order to develop a better and eco-friendly materials for water treatment without endangering the lives of the people.
. Government of the day should embark on awareness campaign, organization of workshops, use of print media as well as radio and television jingles to senitize the people on the need to boil their water before drinking.
. Since municipal water supply facilities are built and designed to serve a targeted population, there is the need to construct new water schemes with increased facilities in order to meet the ever increasing population of our country.
. Government should encourage public participation in water supply planning and effective sanitary environment in order to achieve the MDGs Goal 7 Target B.


TARGET C: 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers.
INTRODUCTION
Housing has been noted and identified as one of the numerous needs for human survival, in addition to food and clothing. It embraces all the social services utilities that make a neighborhood a liveable environment. Housing problems have increased significantly in Nigeria in the past decades and are assuming almost an intractable dimension. Apart from the continual degenerating physical and environmental conditions an increasing smaller number of housing units are added to the housing stock in the country annually due to the depressed national economy. The few available residential units are generally priced outside the reach of many Nigerians to the extent that most urban residents are compelled to choose from no-choice situation.
Urbanization and Urban decay: The world’s economy system is increasingly becoming urban-based and so is Nigeria’s. In Nigeria, rapid urbanization casts a series of challenges to providing the urban poor with access to decent shelter. Consequently, the urban poor lack access, not only to appropriate housing, but also to affordable, tenured, serviced land, housing finance and other government assistance in form of subsidies for housing provision. The resultant effect of this is expansion of slum and squatter settlement.
The current poor housing conditions of Nigerians in relation to the Millennium Development Goals which have specific targets to improve significantly the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020, worldwide, could only be achieved through public/private partnership in housing provision, otherwise it will remain a tall dream and a threat to MDGs.
Land Pollution: Land pollution from industrial activities result from both the direct discharge and disposal of solid wastes by industries on land and the careless disposal of industrial products and products containers. Solid waste can become toxic especially if they contain chemicals like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and toxic metals as already reported in huge refuse dumps that now adorn our urban cities. These chemicals are highly carcinogenic and injurious not only to the urban dwellers but also rural or slum dwellers.
Heap solid wastes are common features within or on the outskirts of major cities. Pesticides containers, broken bottles, mine tailings and metal scraps of all sorts, etc, are also common. Often they are disposed by landfill or incineration. Leachates from uncontrolled landfill sites are high in biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), dissolved toxic metals and persistent toxic organic compounds, all of which pose serious health problems on both surrounding animal and human populations using either the surface or ground water, and eating the vegetables grown on such lands. This issue must be tackled for it seems to be worsening because most towns now stink.