| Young
people of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria established a project to reduce water
contamination. The project is known as Grassroots Participation and Management
of Rural Water-Related Environmental Problems.
The project aims to reduce infectious diseases and death from the consumption
of polluted water. It involves networking among women’s associations
found in the area. So far, the project has helped to abolish the
dumping of refuse into streams, and educated families about the importance
of boiling drinking water and constructing ventilated improved pit latrines
in primary schools.
In addition, it researched and encouraged the re-use of pig manure to
restore farmland that was polluted through crude oil contamination. As
a result, dramatic reductions in diseases have been achieved in the area.
Incidences of hepatitis, cholera, typhoid fever, dysentery, and polio
were reduced by half in one year. In the following two years, another
reduction by half of the outstanding cases was realized. |
