Qnet Ltd., a global e-commerce based direct selling company, says safe drinking water challenges faced by many families in Nigeria requires creative thinking and solutions from stakeholders.
Mr Biram Fall, QNET Regional General Manager for sub-Sahara Africa, who disclosed this in a statement on Thursday in Lagos, made the call at the World Water Forum held in Dakar, Senegal.
The international event is tagged: “Water Security for Peace and Development”.
According to Fall, more than 130, 000 children die of water-related diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea annually in Nigeria.
“Moreover, to have access to safe drinking water in the country is an expensive challenge for many.
“An average family in Lagos, for example, expends a sizable portion of their income on just access to safe drinking water.
“This is by no means sustainable, hence the need for a more sustainable approach,” he said.
Fall said that the 9th edition of the international event had pulled together stakeholders to strategise on how to promote and implement actionable responses and tactics for water sanitation in an integrated way.
The general manager said that the firm was participating to showcase existing solutions to safe drinking water through the HomePure Complete Water Filtration System.
Quoting a 2015 research paper published by UNICEF, Fall said that currently, 11 per cent of the global population still lacked access to clean water, one of humans’ most basic needs.
He said that in Sub-Saharan Africa, only 61 per cent of the population had access to safe drinking water.
Falls said that in Nigeria, a recent survey by the World Health Organisation (WHO) indicated that 63 million people lack access to safe drinking water and are exposed to waterborne diseases.
According to him, such diseases include cholera and typhoid which make the country the world’s third largest population without adequate drinking water supply.
“One of QNET’s global strategies is to provide awareness on how best to access safe drinking water, and participation at the Water Forum aims to contribute to the reflection on water security for the Africa population,” he said.
Fall stressed that economic and environmental concerns related to climate change had highlighted the decreasing availability of quality water supply in certain countries.
According to him, such is the situation in countries that have low budgets for water treatment, especially in Africa.
“While households may not be able to control these factors, they can control the quality of water in their homes and we aim to be part of the solution.
“HomePure understands that water quality varies depending on the location,” he said.
According to him, based on research, there are two major water quality problems to date; notably fine sediment and hard water.
Fall said that those factors prevented most water filtration systems from working at optimum performance.
He added that the HomePure solution addressed this challenge via a unique eco-friendly nine-stage water filtration system.
“This eliminates harmful bacteria and viruses, improves taste, and turns tap water to Pi-water, with no need for electricity, which is hard to come by for many African homes.
“The system, which also removes fine sediments from tap water and decreases its hardness level, can easily be installed and deployed to offer clean and nourishing water to households and communities,” he said.
According to him, the forum provided a unique platform for the world’s water community and key decision-makers to collaborate and make long-term progress on global water challenges.
He said that the World Water Council, notably through the organisation of the World Water Forums, had strongly contributed to positioning water as a global political priority.
QNET Ltd is a Hong Kong-based multi-level marketing company with distributors spread across the Middle East, South and East Asia, Africa, Central Asia, and Europe.
The World Water Forum is the largest international event on water co-organised every three years by the World Water Council and a host country in a city that hosts it for a week.
The sixth World Water Forum took place in Marseille in 2012 while the last one in Brazil in 2018 brought together tens of thousands of participants and it is currently being held in Senegal.
