Thirsty
For Change
Nigeria has faced many conflicts since it became independent in 1960. The conflicts started when the country had to unify 250 ethnic and linguistic groups. Nigeria is the most populated country in Africa with a population of nearly 170 million. Resources are limited, especially in the planned city of Abuja, which replaced Lagos as the new capitol. Abuja was created by the federal government in the mid 1970s and was described to be a “functional model city." (Ameto,2012) Unfortunately based on certain factors this statement could not be further from the truth.
"Jibril Ibrahim, the Director of the FCT water board, the agency solely responsible for the production and supply of water in the territory, admits that the authorities did not see this coming. "(Ameto, 2012) . This seems highly unlikely since one of the reasons that a new capitol was formed was because Lagos, the old capitol, was decaying because of the amount of people living in it which was 5.195 million. Lagos's growth rate is 3.2% and its population
(including the region around it) is just under 12 million. In 1970 Abuja
had many many people come to live there as the government had promised many high paying government jobs. In 2006 Abuja’s growth rate was 9.3% the highest rate in the country.
Another huge factor in this is that this crisis began in 1970, there is still no improvement 44 years later. No one had said why they have not started changing their plans to cope with this huge population crisis. It was then discovered that there has been no effort to improve the lack of electricity and safe clean drinking water between 2006-2014. In 2010 a government survey showed that only 7% of households have access to safe clean drinking water,while 43% depend on rivers and streams and 27%depend on boreholes.(Ameto,2012)
There are many improvements that could happen over the course of the next five years, for instance the government could start to control the oil that is being let in. The water needs to be more protected, either by organizations or by the government. Water pumps could be set up in rural towns.
By: Eleanor Bemis