 Welcome back to the breakfast. It's time for our second hot topic and we want to talk about water, water poverty. What do you know about water poverty in Nigeria today? We're addressing that this morning. According to Water Aid, more than 60 million people in Nigeria do not have access to basic clean water supply. And according to UNICEF, two-thirds of the country's population lack access to portable water. We're talking 133 million persons. Well, I've been joined by Onye Dikachi-Erete, a tech entrepreneur, data analyst and the visionary behind Rector Care Foundation dedicated to providing clean and safe water to rural areas in Nigeria. Good morning to you, Onye Dikachi-Erete. Good morning. Thanks for having me. Glad to have you join us. Well, the Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamo, stated recently that access to clean drinking water had improved from 3.7% in 2016 to 13% in 2021, meaning that 21 million Nigerians have access to water free from chemical and fossil elements. He said its dams produced 11.2 billion cubic waters, meters of water for irrigation, 900 million cubic meters for water supply, and 18 billion hydrogeneration. However, the UNICEF reports proves the glaring inadequacy of these numbers, right? Yes. Talk to us about how big an issue water poverty is in Nigeria today. Okay, thanks for having me once again. Water poverty is a big issue. When we talk about water poverty, we talk about poverty means lack. So water poverty refers to the lack of access to clean water sources for basic human needs such as drinking, sanitation and hygiene. It is a critical issue in many communities in Nigeria and according to UNICEF, there are 26 million children who don't have access to clean water in Nigeria. And according to Water Aid and Water Health Organization, there are over 60 million Nigerians who lack access to drinking water and proper sanitation facilities. It is a big issue because water is life, clean water is a human right, and it is a very vital catalyst for the progress and prosperity of any community in Nigeria. So while we are addressing water poverty in Nigeria, we need to understand that many communities in Nigeria don't have access to clean water. When we talk about water poverty, we are not talking about the big cities like Potak or Lagos and Ambuja and Kano. Most of the cities, they have access to clean and safe water. Although some don't have, especially like in Lagos, in the island like Lakey, some still don't have access to clean water but by the way, water poverty is a big issue and we need to find ways to address this issue as soon as possible. As a tech entrepreneur, how is tech being deployed to solve this problem? There are many ways you could solve water poverty through tech. I partnered with Power Dojusen Foundation and Groundforce, where we provided solar powered borehole. Actually, I started this whole initiative in 2020 during the pandemic, where I partnered with the Dojusen Foundation and we provided over 5,000 indigenous in Lambasa community, Atyosa, Lukagome area in Lagos. During the lockdown, we won an award with Union Bank, Union Bank Rise Challenge, which encouraged us to do more. And we invested the money they gave us into the tech of providing water, which is the solar powered borehole. And since then, with the help of Power Dojusen Foundation and Groundforce and their technology as well, we have provided solar powered borehole in Ochicha and Google community, Ikeju, Lukagome area, Imo State, and Obofia community, Ozita and Bender, Lukagome area. And counter, we have one we are about to kickstart next week. With solar powered boreholes, we can provide this clean water 24 hours without the need of electricity. Like you can see the fuel price has gone up. And if we are using the fuel to power this water, it will be very expensive for us. But solar helps us to provide this clean water 24 hours. Thank you. Well, so the numbers are alarming. And even for those of us in the city whom you said have clean water, you know that Nigerians provide water for themselves. When we were younger, I don't know how young you are, how old you are, but when I was younger growing up in secondary school, I went to a public secondary school. And I remember during our break time, we would just go to the taps on it and drink clean water. But it's not the case today. Is your agency partnering with government or is government partnering with your agency or any agency that you know in seeking an end to water poverty in this country? Like you said, I also experienced a fair share of experience where we get clean water from our homes without providing it for ourselves. But right now, most of this, the problem is the maintenance culture. We have a very bad maintenance culture. And that's why most people are providing their own clean water by themselves by drilling boreholes in their homes or anywhere they need it. But it is a big issue because many organizations don't and the government, everybody needs to come together to encourage and eradicate water poverty. I've not really partnered with any government agency. I've only partnered with Power to Joseph Foundation and Groundforce and also the Medic Initiative. We've used our technology to provide solar-powered borehole. The last one we did in Emo State where we provided solar-powered borehole, we connected underground pipes to the healthcare center. We don't have water availability. And also to the school, we don't have water availability through underground pipes and they receive water 24 hours. And we encourage organizations in Nigeria to come together to eradicate this water poverty because it is a big issue. I've been to different communities where they don't have clean water and they go to streams to fetch this water. And I believe that with all hands on deck we can eradicate water poverty in Nigeria. Okay, talk to us more about the communities that you've been to and which part of Nigeria would you say is worse hit? Is it the northern part, the southeastern part, the southwest or the south side? Thank you for the question. In Nigeria, most if not all communities are vulnerable to water poverty. These communities often lack proper infrastructure and resources and if they have one, the maintenance culture is really a big thing because once they build the water infrastructure for them without a good maintenance culture and sustainability, the water projects will go down and all these issues lead to, they are very vulnerable to waterborne diseases such as cholera, diarrhea and other health issues. I would say there's a particular place in Nigeria whether it's the north, southwest that have these modern orders but with our statistics most of these communities in the north, southwest all have these issues of water poverty we all need to come together, these stakeholders, organizations who have to implement this in their corporate social responsibility to find a way to end water poverty in Nigeria. I'm glad that you're a tech entrepreneur perhaps you can also help us understand why the water board is not functional apart from corruption of course. And I understand that one state particularly in the east had to shut I think it was Anambara state, shut down the water board you're not giving water, you're sitting here idling away and receiving salaries at the end of the month. Can you tell us as a tech engineer what may have been the problem? Who dropped the ball and how did he get dropped? Why did we stop having water? I mean water, portable water from our taps. Every home used to have it. Every compound back then used to have it. What happened to the water board? I believe they need to grow with the technology especially the maintenance culture and they need to improve the technology especially the distribution of this water I believe that we have new technologies like with my partner's grandfather we have advanced technologies which can help this water board to the next level secondly the government needs to also improve and invest in wastewater treatment there are other ways we can provide this clear water to individuals wastewater treatment and advanced water purification most of this water we use in our homes we can also recycle these waters and use them again and I believe this water board everybody needs to come together and also showcase new technologies to them and currently as I'm talking to you I have a state who have an issue of flooding that affected their water board and they contacted Rector Care Foundation to see how we can get back the water board functional and we are on it at the moment and I believe that other states can also contact us or contact any professional out there who can get this back together because people who don't have money to provide boreholes for themselves they depend on this water board water government bodies to provide water and if they can provide water they have to go to homes who have boreholes or they have to go to the stream to fetch water which is very bad Well the minister of water resources Sulaiman Adamo I just gave you his quote there which is said to be different from the figure released by UNICEF being totally not reconciling not reconciling what does that say what kind of picture does that paint about the future of clean water available water in this country if the minister is not seeming to have an accurate picture of the situation on ground I believe with his data he has made his own inquiries on how the water has been distributed and also trying to counter the data of the World Health Organization it's possible that more people now get clean water from his data but we still need to look at the communities the rural areas maybe he's talking about the cities like Lagos, Potacots, and Butcher which maybe they've improved drastically but if he can also lend hand into the rural areas and undeserved communities I believe the numbers will increase as well so if we're taking our data maybe next year about people who have access to clean water we also need to look into rural areas and communities who have and undeserved communities who have who this issue affects more than the people in the city thank you or could it be that UNICEF or Water 8 do not have their facts right about a situation here in the country oh is that a possibility is it a possibility that they're probably exaggerating the problems we have it's possible but we still need to be like a new data collection to also fact check all this and also Rector Care Foundation we also have a survey going on on our website where we can also try to fact check all this numbers as well for all Rector Care Foundation we've provided over 35,000 people access to clean water so with that data we can also help increase these numbers I know 60 million people who don't have access to clean water is a big number we can also find ways to fact check this information and data as well well thank you so much Onyedikachi Erete for your time this morning and I do hope that this matter will be well addressed because figures accuracy or not we can see for ourselves that Nigeria needs support in this regard I'm not talking about UNICEF or Water 8 I'm talking about the government fixing this water problem for ourselves so that Nigerians can begin to have clean water at every nuke and corner as we did back in the days when we were younger the good old days when you turn your tap and there's water when we didn't have boreholes when we didn't have pure water and all of that so we hope to go back to those days when things were better we want to see Nigerian government addressing this and not looking for help from outsiders and it's good to have Nigerian entrepreneurs such as yourself doing stuff that you're doing good things you're doing kudos to you thank you very much thank you so much Onyedikachi Erete is a tech entrepreneur data analyst and the visionary behind Rector Cares Foundation dedicated to providing clean and safe water to rural areas in Nigeria well that's our package today on the breakfast so before I go I leave you with our quote of the day science and technology revolutionize our lives but memory, tradition and myth frame our response that's according to Arthur Schlesinger I am Maureen Menon-Wizigwe many thanks for your time do join us tomorrow for another episode of The Breakfast on Plus TV Africa good morning