Expert urges FG to provide portable water to prevent water-borne diseases

Tue, Apr 17, 2018 | By publisher


Foreign

A public health physician, Dr Ogungbemi Olalekan, has urged the Federal Government to ensure availability of portable water in all parts of the country to prevent water borne diseases.

Olalekan, who is the Founder, Mole Health Foundation, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja.

He said water related diseases were common in the country and spread by pathogenic micro-organisms that transmitted bacteria or viral infections into rivers, well and rain water.

He said government should try as a matter of necessity to link up every part of the country to a national grid of pipe-borne water to prevent water borne diseases.

“It is very unfair that some parts of the country do not have access to safe water while some do. Government should make sure that a national grid of pipe-borne water is put in place.

“Government should also make long-time and short-time plan to ensure availability of safe water,” he said.

The physician noted that water borne diseases usually manifest symptoms ranging from diarrhea to vomiting and fever, among others.

He added that the diseases might cause other symptoms, depending on the organisms that were involved.

He listed the most common water-borne diseases to include cholera, dysentery, diarrhea, typhoid, hepatitis A, poliomyelitis and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

Olalekan said water-borne diseases could kill within a short period of time if the patients failed to receive proper medical attention.

He advised patients to seek proper medical care as soon as they noticed the symptoms.

The physician decried some unhygienic habits of defecating into rivers and polluting sources of water by some people.

He enjoined those who sources of water supply included river, well and rain to always purify it before usage.

“Those, whose sources of water are rivers, well and rain water should boil, filter or treat it with chlorine to avoid being infected by organisms,” he said (NAN)

– Apr. 17, 2018 @ 11:46 GMT

AE

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