Overcoming Enugu’s water challenges — by Kelechi Deca

Sometime last week, I was discussing the issue of water supply in Enugu which from current reports has improved from where they were say few years ago even though distribution is still a major challenge.

Enugu, unlike other cities in the South East, has a very unique topography, and the water crisis is largely geological because borehole drilling is difficult and expensive.

Nwadilibe Iloeje succinctly captured this in his book, “A New Geography for Nigeria “which every student of Geography in the secondary school who paid attention should know.

Large parts of Enugu sit on heavy coal deposits and shale, making it incredibly difficult and expensive to drill boreholes as extensive underground coal deposits and hard rock makes such nearly impossible.

Groundwater is only available in a few specific aquifers like the Ajali formation, forcing the city to rely heavily on surface water schemes

The uniqueness of the Enugu always presents for me a very practical example in making clarifications between geographic determinism and possibilism.

Geographic determinism believes that the physical environment dictates human culture and societal development.

Conversely, possibilism argues that while the environment merely sets limits, human agency, technology, culture and intellectual power at the disposal of humans can determine how societies adapt and overcome challenges.

For close to three decades, different administrations in Enugu have used geographic determinism as valid excuses to shirk responsibilities. And even in states without challenging topographic issues, provision of potable water is a forgotten responsibility by state governments.

A very unfortunate development because most of these cities in Nigeria all had potable water about three decades ago. My village had a water supply system built by the NCNC government in 1964.

Unfortunately, we are raising a generation that would never have an idea of what it means to have a central water supply not to think of central sewage system. A discussion for another day.

While other state governments can conveniently forget about the provision of pipe-borne water because the drilling of boreholes at every house (an aberration in human development) has been normalized, residents of Enugu cannot afford such expensive task. That’s why Enugu cannot afford such luxury thus water is central to any discussion about development in the state.

That governments before now hid behind the “valid” alibi that the city’s unfriendly topography is responsible, the continued existence of the Enugu State Water Corporation (ESWC) even when no drop of water was available was a big irony that got normalised.

Intriguingly, almost all the states in Nigeria without potable water supply all have water corporations that get annual budgets and staffed with workers who are paid monthly.

We have developed this attitude in Nigeria of seeing infrastructure challenges as insurmountable, yet there are examples of other places where even tougher challenges were overcome.

For example, in Cape Town, South Africa, the city faced “Day Zero,” a countdown to total taps running dry. Instead of giving up, they turned to nature-based solutions.

The city launched a water fund to clear invasive alien plants in the watershed, recovering billions of litres of water annually at a fraction of the cost of desalination.

Lima, the capital of Peru is the world’s second-largest desert city which sits in a terrain just as challenging as Enugu’s hills. Lima revived ancient pre-Incan canals called Amunas to catch and filter rainwater through the mountains during the wet season, releasing it slowly into the city’s taps during the dry months.

Singapore has no natural aquifers or significant rivers, and limited land for reservoirs but it overcame this by developing a world-leading system of rainwater capture through Marina Barrage, high-grade water recycling (NEWater), and desalination. Today, Singapore meets most of its own water demand despite its geographical constraints.

If there is a city that should use challenging geography as an excuse to sit on its palms and shift the responsibility to God like Enugu, that city is Las Vegas, USA.

Sitting in the middle of the Mojave Desert with less than 4 inches of annual rainfall and no local surface water, Las Vegas succeeded by investing heavily in water recycling which led to returning 90% of indoor water to Lake Mead via treatment.

What was achieved by Las Vegas is regarded as very aggressive conservation incentives, pioneering an “intelligent” water management system for the Colorado River.

In Tokyo, Japan, a city that is historically prone to droughts and floods due to its geography, large population on a narrow floodplain with limited natural storage.

But the city succeeded through a vast network of underground floodwater storage known as “underground temples” , an advanced leak-reduction technology with leakage under 3%, and extensive water reuse systems in buildings, turning a vulnerable location into one of the world’s most reliable water systems.

Amsterdam has every excuse in the world not to provide water for its inhabitants. It lies below sea level with brackish, shallow groundwater unsuitable for drinking, yet it overcame this by developing sophisticated dune infiltration which involves pre-treating river water and allowing it to naturally filter through coastal sand dunes. This is an advanced drinking water technology that turns a hydrological liability into one of the world’s safest water supplies.

The Enugu State government should continue working to ensure that the distribution channels cover all parts of the city by ensuring that old and dilapidated asbestos pipes are replaced. Excuses that worked in the past cannot work today.