Most rural Nigerians get their drinking water directly from rivers, streams or ponds. But even in urban areas, water safety is an issue. In Lagos, only about 30 percent of the city's 8 million residents have direct access to potable water. At Plateau State Hospital in Jos, water is drawn from a well for patient needs, from drinking and washing to minor surgery. And in Jos, one of Nigeria's main cities in the north, the regional hospital draws its water from an open well outside the children's ward.
Clean water is the key to health in Africa.
It is paramount. Global 2000, a non-governmental organization, has made clean water its top priority. But even with the donations it has received from the Gates Foundation and from drug companies, it lacks the resources for the major, capital-intensive projects that are needed to fix the problem. But it doesn't really fit their public health agenda. Part of the problem is a lack of coordination among the various international bureaucracies.