By Stanley Onyekwere
As part of activities to mark this year’s World Water Day, the Federal Capital Federal (FCT) Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Directorate otherwise known FCT-RUWASSA, has taken safe water advocacy to students of Government Science Technical College (GSTC), Garki, Abuja.
It was observed the students along some teachers and other stakeholders were exposed to presentations on water safety chain and importance of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) to curb the spread of water-related diseases.
In his welcome address, Executive Director, FCT-RUWASSA, Dr. Mohammed Ali Dan-Hassan, said the Day with the theme: ‘Leveraging Water for Peace’, is used to advocate for sustainable fresh water resources for all.
He added that the initiative is about celebrating water and raising awareness of the people living without access to safe water, as well as about taking action to tackle the global water crisis.
According to him, to ensure that water helps in achieving peace that is so much needed in the society, both at the community level, state, national and international level, there is need for adequate awareness on safe water.
The RUWASSA boss opined that water is as important as life itself, urging the students to ambassadors of safe water, by taking advantage of opportunity of the Day to spread the message in our homes, communities, states, nation and even international.
He however, noted that water is the most taken-for-granted natural resource in the world.
According to him: “Water is finite as it is limited and can go dry, so therefore, we need to use and conserve it wisely. Water is only next to air, so therefore, that tells us its importance, so we want to use this opportunity to remind ourselves that we can leverage on the significance of water to advocate for peace within oneself.
“When you are angered or somebody makes you angry, just sit down, calm down and take a glass of water, you will just see yourself being calmed down by your own self, and by so doing, you are giving peace to yourself.
“So, there is more to water than we see, it is only God that knows what He has put in there. It is much more than the the H2O (hydrogen and oxygen) that we know.
“This is not something new, as we are not reinventing the wheel, but reminding ourselves that water is as important as life itself, therefore, we should take advantage of this opportunity to spread the message in our homes, communities, states, nation and even international.
If we found ourselves out of this country, we should be ambassadors of safe drinking water”
On his part, Principal, GSTC, Garki,
James Musa Kuta, represented by Vice Principal, Admin, Abdulkareem Aliyu Enebe, enjoined stakeholders to make use of water all the time, as it is very important, because it solves a lot of problems.
He said: “We need water for drinking, washing, generating electricity and cooking etc. So, we have to be friendly to water.
“We are very happy that you chose our school for this world water day celebration, and I believe that the students here are going to benefit very well from the programme.”
Also, there were goodwill messages from Primary Healthcare Board of the FCT Administration, FCT Water Board, and Health and Development Support Programme (HANDS).
World Water Day, held on 22 March every year since 1993, is an annual United Nations Observance focusing on the importance of freshwater. A core focus of the Day is to support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030.
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