Drinking water in Lagos causes cancer - Report

Anyakora

At Ijora-Badia, one of Lagos’ most notorious slums, living around dirt is obviously not strange to the residents. But the water they buy from vendors who get their supply from the Lagos State Water Corporation may be doing them more harm than good.

A sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation, which is Target 10 under Goal Seven of the Millennium Development Goals, continues to be an illusion to people like the residents of this area. According to the United Nations, at least 783 million people the world over lack access to clean water.

 Many residents of the Ijora-Badia community dispose of their human wastes in open sewers while most of the pipes laid by water vendors in the community pass through the same drains and sewers. Yet common cases of dysentery and diarrhoea among children of the community do not seem to be raising alarm bells.

The result of the analysis revealed a frightening chemical and biological composition.

The silica level detected is 14.20, which is at least 400 times higher than the World Health Organisation’s acceptable maximum of 0.03. Phosphate, a chemical that causes digestive problems to both human and animal, is five times higher (at 5.176) than the maximum level permissible by the WHO (1.0).

The analysis also reveals 0.498 level of Lead, a dangerous carcinogenic metal. A senior lecturer of Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of Lagos, Dr. Chimezie Anyakora, who has conducted extensive research on water contamination across Nigeria, broke down the result of the water analysis, explaining that the lead detected in the water level should be of great concern to the people directly using the water and Lagosians in general.

He said, “Obviously, the bacterial count (2.40 X 103 colony-forming unit per millimetre) which is at least 20 times more than the WHO limits (1.0 x 102) poses the danger of short-term diseases like typhoid, dysentery and diarrhoea. But my major concern is the lead level. There should not be any lead at all in the water.

“As you know, lead is a very carcinogenic element. If one ingests bacteria in water, they reproduce and attack the body when their number is large enough. The typhoid, dysentery, diarrhoea or other diseases that it will give you in the short-term can be treated if detected in time. But the problem are those who are not feeling sick at the moment and develop long term illnesses in the long run because of the heavy metal, lead.