 UNICEF has revealed that Nigeria ranks second out of 163 countries globally, with the highest risk of exposure to climate and environmental threats. This revelation was made by the chief of field office UNICEF in Ugo, Mrs. Julia Chilewe, while addressing newsmen. According to her, available statistics indicate that groundwater levels are also dropping, requiring some communities to dig wells twice as deep as a decade ago. Mrs. Chilewe highlighted that rainfall has become more erratic and intense, leading to floods that contaminate scarce water supply. UNICEF also called on the federal government to increase effective accountable system coordination and capacities to provide water and sanitation services, to implement the UN Water SDGB Global Accredi Acceleration Framework. She emphasized the need for the government to invest more in safe drinking water, so as to create a conducive environment and make life better. Joining us now to look at the UNICEF ranking is Desmond Majekudumi, an environmentalist. Thank you so much for joining us on the news now tonight. My pleasure. What we celebrate at the World Water Day on the 22nd of March this year, and Nigeria has ranked the second out of 163 countries with the highest risk of exposure to environmental and climate threat. What was your first reaction to the statement, and how much of a trouble are we in when it comes to the water crisis? Yeah, well, the reality is that water is one of the essential ingredients for life. It's part of the incredible, miraculous life support system of this earth. And unfortunately, like other aspects of the earth's life support systems, we have not been treating the water very well. Far, far too much pollution has been going into groundwater systems, number one, and number two, the actual conveyor belt of water, you know, the rain process is being badly disrupted. What are we talking about? We're talking about deforestation. The trees, the millions and millions of trees that are there, they are part of the process of ensuring that rain comes inland. It's a photosynthesis trans-vaporation process that the trees leaves give off. And if you don't have the trees to do that, you won't get rain inland. And if you don't get rain inland, you're not going to have much water. So nature is blowing an alarm call for humanity and telling us that we need to start nurturing nature and caring for our far better. Otherwise, we're going to have far worse water shortages. All right, now I need to ask, when we talk about water, there seems to be some sort of confusion on whether water is really scarce in Nigeria and Africa as a whole. As an environmentalist, do we have the problem of quality or quantity and what should be done to avoid this crisis? What should be done to ensure we have better water quality? I didn't quite get the question. I think that's what you asked. Yes. Well, you see, nature is a very specific entity. She operates on fundamental laws. And what are we talking about? We're talking about one of the most fundamental laws in the universe. And this is the law of action, begetting reaction. For every action, there is a reaction. Whatever you give nature, she gives you back in the most simplistic form. You know, if you sow cassava, you can't harvest cocoa. You harvest what you sow. And this is very clearly stated in all the major scriptures, the law of retribution. It is there. It's called different phrases in different scriptures when it's there. And so nature is telling us globally and also in Nigeria that we have to change our attitudes. Our attitudes are far too negative. And these negative attitudes are disrupting the capability of nature to give us clean, clear, pure water. The amount of pollution that goes into the groundwater levels from chemicals where oil spills in those areas where they're extracting oil from the gas flaring from septic tanks even, you know, this is not acceptable. And nature is letting us know. And also the responsibility obviously is on government to ensure that the water supplies are clean. When I was a young boy growing up in Lagos, you could actually drink the water that came out of your tap and just about every home had tap water available or just immediately outside the house, clean water. But over the years, the responsibility of ensuring that the population had clean water started to diminish and diminish to the extent now that a lot of our water in the urban areas is badly contaminated. So we need good government regulations that are adhered to and we need to, as individuals, ensure that we do everything we can to reduce our pollution. Otherwise, nature is going to give us a few hefty slaps. Believe you me, you don't want nature to do that. Well, to corroborate your speech, the UNICEF chief feud officer in Enugu Jule Tachui also called on the government to invest more in safe drinking water. But while we wait for the government, how should Nigerians make water safe for themselves to drink and for those who don't have, how can they access them? Yeah, this is a very fundamental question. It's not going to be easy. We have to just hold our government officials accountable. And at the same time, you know, really, really think about ourselves and our neighbors. We are our neighbors' keeper and this is something that we must do. So ensure that you're not pouring too much dirt out there into the system, especially when you have these mechanics, you know, people who are pouring oil into the gutter and so on. No, no, no, no, that's not what you do with your waste. You put it in a big drum and then you find an official area where you can dispose of it. Our septic tanks have to be far more better operated so that they're not leaking out into the groundwater. And we also need to actually guess what, plant a whole bunch of trees. Yes, if you have space in your, especially if you're in a more urban area, make sure that you have a lot of vegetation there. That helps a lot. The root zone of the trees helps to purify. And of course, as we said earlier, the trees themselves are very, very useful in the trans-vaporation process, which makes sure that we get good clean water. But fundamentally, we as citizens of this great nation have to hold the government accountable. Starting from the local government level all the way up through the state government to the federal government. After all, that's what democracy is all about. The power is in the hands of the people and we have to express that power and also explain to the government the job description which is civil servants. So they're there to serve the people and we must ensure that we are well served, especially when it comes to giving us good clean water systems. Well, thank you very much. We hope to get the change that we need. Thank you very much for joining us on the news now tonight.