The Water Quality Crisis in Rivers State

“I am a native of Ogoni, and clean water is all we need to live, yet we have been left with no choice but to survive on polluted water,” said Monday Muekara, an Ogoni native in Rivers State, South-South, Nigeria, when asked about the quality of water his community has access to.

This is not only Muekara’s reality; it reflects the lived experience of many residents across Rivers State. Even though approximately 39% of the state is classified as riverine, and the state is predominantly low-lying and pluvial, the more than 7 million people who live in the state lack access to potable water

Soibi Amachree, a mother of four from Asari Toru, Kalabari, a riverine community in the state, shares a similar ordeal. “We are surrounded by water, yet accessing clean water is far-fetched,” she said. Amachree explained that her household depends heavily on water for daily activities, yet access to safe water remains a major challenge for the community.

She also highlighted the financial and health burden caused by poor water quality, noting that” frequent hospital visits have become our routine as my kids and I and fall ill with typhoid almost every fortnight”.

Many of these communities are in areas allegedly contaminated by decades of oil exploration and crude oil spills. According to Muekara, “Oil pollution came, destroyed our mangroves, destroyed our creeks, destroyed our rivers and streams, and also destroyed our wells.”

A recent study examining surface and groundwater around illegal refining sites in Rivers State found widespread contamination. The report, which investigated the impact of illegal crude oil refining on water quality across the state, concluded that water sources were significantly polluted, posing extreme ecological and human health risks.

Fred Aator, a geologist based in Rivers State, said water quality remains a pressing concern, particularly in rural communities such as Ogoni, Andoni, Opobo, and other riverine areas where various pollutants are present.

“In Ogoniland, environmental pollution is largely caused by heavy metals contaminating underground water. In riverine communities such as Opobo, Andoni, Okrika, Port Harcourt, Degema, Buguma, and Bonny, iron contamination is prevalent due to shallow boreholes, often less than 30 metres deep—that tap into iron-rich aquifers,” Aator said.

According to a 2020 water quality assessment in Rivers State, borehole water sampled across all study locations failed to meet safety standards, highlighting the need for treatment before consumption.

The study, which employed the Water Quality Index (WQI) approach, assessed water suitability across three local government areas using parameters including pH, temperature, electrical conductivity, biological oxygen demand, chloride, sulphate, calcium, magnesium, phosphate, total hardness, nitrate, lead, cadmium, copper, and iron.

The results showed that WQI values exceeded acceptable thresholds in all sampling locations due to groundwater contamination, rendering the water unsafe for both human and animal consumption.

Aator further noted that where residents resort to drilling private boreholes, many are sunk at insufficient depths and in areas exposed to heavy metals, failing to reach safe aquifers.

While the water crisis continues unabated, the state government maintains that efforts are underway to bridge the gap.

Napoleon Adah, a former Director of the Rivers State Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASSA), affirmed that the government is working assiduously to address the situation.

He explained that the Rivers State Government, in collaboration with the European Union under the Niger Delta Support Programme, has provided water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities in Opobo/Nkoro and Akuku-Toru local government areas.

“Presently, the water corporation, in collaboration with the African Development Bank, is laying water pipes across Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor local government areas,” Adah said.

However, while scientific reports confirmed that illegal refining has pushed ecological risk levels in Rivers State to an “extreme” category, Geologist Aator said that accessing uncontaminated groundwater which often requires drilling to depths of up to 300 meters, could be financially draining for individuals as the process could cost as much as ₦6 million, which is far beyond the reach of most residents.

In a region where 83% of water samples are seriously affected by lead pollution, the risk of widespread typhoid and long-term health complications remains high, Aator advised that “government intervention should prioritise expanding distribution networks to deliver potable water from deep, safe wells into residential areas, alongside immediate environmental cleanup in zones identified as having “extremely high” ecological risk due to heavy-metal saturation”.