Globally, water is considered both a crucial resource and a major challenge. Its quality and availability constitute significant determinants of sustainable health, economic growth and social development. According to the published in 2023 “water use has been increasing globally by roughly 1% per year over the last 40 years and is expected to grow at a similar rate” due to “population growth, socio-economic development and changing consumption patterns.” The same report warns though, that “water scarcity is becoming endemic as a result of the local impact of physical water stress, coupled with the acceleration and spreading of freshwater pollution.”
Established at the , a member institution of the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) in Nigeria, the Water and Public Health Research Group is a trans-faculty research team seeking to study water, public health, and development through multidisciplinary approaches in order to develop capacity and contribute to advancing knowledge in those sectors while helping to provide safe water to communities and marginalized groups in sub-Saharan Africa, and collaborating with various stakeholders in response to water-related challenges. The group is led by Dr. Vincent Nnamdigadi Chigor, from the Department of Microbiology at the Faculty of Biological Sciences.
On of the highlights of group’s activities is the Health Humanities Outreach (H2O). This novel engagement initiative provides the grounds for the collaborative convergence of science and arts towards the delivery of, in particular, the?. The aim is to address challenges related to this issue by empowering communities to take charge of their own well-being through evidence-based microbiology, involving surveys, awareness, training on affordable water testing and treatment, and collecting water samples for laboratory analysis and health risk assessment. The Itchi-Agu rural community, was a focus for this initiative from late 2022 until mid-2023.
Itchi-Agu is in Enugu State, in the southeastern part of Nigeria, about 11km from the university’s campus. In this rural community that depends entirely on streams and springs, up to 75% of the 110 households previously surveyed practice open defecation, and more than 90% of the population do not treat their water to make it safe for drinking. Moreover, the baseline prevalence of diarrheal diseases in all age groups was established based on records at the community health center and survey-determined self-reported cases. Actually, diarrhea ranks second only to malaria as the primary reason for visits to such center. These numbers underscored the urgency and relevance of an appropriate intervention.
The quality of water collected by the research team from sources and household storage containers at Itchi-Agu was dire, with every tested sample revealing fecal contamination, a major contributor to the high incidence of diarrheal diseases. To remediate this, adults and young people were given hands-on training on using Portable Microbiology Laboratory kits to test their water for contamination and taught how to treat their water, mainly with chlorine. The training, coupled with advocacy, increased awareness and provided vital skills. An assessment confirmed that now almost a quarter of Itchi-Agu households treat their water before drinking, compared to the 8% reported in a pre-intervention survey.
The self-reported prevalence of diarrhea in children under five has decreased from 31% to 14%, attesting to the transformative power of informed education and practical training. Moreover, water treatment is expected to grow within the community, as the research team pledged to provide seed support for 300 bottles of a disinfecting chemical for such purpose, which were delivered and made available to the community by late September 2023. In addition, and also as a result of the intervention, a community’s Water Source and Quality Monitoring Committee was created, to ensure community-driven sustainability of the newfound knowledge and a determination to safeguard their community’s health.
One of the community’s female leaders, Lolo Nkeiruka, said they were “excited that the research team from the university has come to test our water to know if it is safe for drinking.” “We are now eager to test our water, and we are also happy that a remote community like ours has been remembered,” she added. “It is water challenges that are giving us reasons to dare! And, to me, water is both the most robust platform for collaborative, interdisciplinary, and multidisciplinary research and a valid bridge between laboratory research and community engagement for tackling global challenges in all spheres of life,” commented on a side Dr. Chigor, project leader, on behalf of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
