World Water Forum: QNET, others seek access to safe drinking water across Africa

By Onyebuchi Sampson

For the first time, Africa would be home for the 9th edition of the World Water Forum, which will be held today, March 26, in Dakar Senegal.

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 6th World Water Forum took place in Marseille in 2012, the last one in Brazil in 2018 brought together tens of thousands of participants and is currently being held in Senegal in March 2022.

The Forum provides a unique platform, where the water community and key decision-makers including politicians, multilateral institutions, academia, civil society and the private sector can collaborate and establish long-term action plans on water challenges around the world.

This year’s edition of the international event, with the theme: “Water Security for Peace and Development,” will pull together stakeholders to strategize on how to promote and implement actionable responses and tactics for water sanitation in an integrated way.

The event would be attended by a variety of stakeholders including QNET, the world’s leading direct seller, which is participating to showcase existing solutions to safe drinking water through the Home Pure Complete Water Filtration System.

According to a 2015 research paper published by United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF), currently, 11percent of the global population still lacks access to clean water, one of human’s most basic needs. In Sub-Saharan Africa, only 61per cent of the population has access to safe drinking water.

In Nigeria a recent survey, by the World Health Organization (WHO) indicated 63 million people lack access to safe drinking water and are exposed to waterborne diseases – such as cholera and typhoid, making it 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 African population.
While commenting on QNET’s participation at the Forum organized by the World Water Council (WWC) and the Government of Senegal, Regional Manager, Sub-Saharan Africa for QNET, Biram Fall said: “Economic and environmental concerns related to climate change have highlighted the decreasing availability of quality water supply in certain countries which have low budgets for water treatment, especially in Africa.

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” 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. Based on research, he noted there are two major water quality problems to date; notably fine sediment and hard water.

“These factors prevent most water filtration systems from working at optimum performance,” Fall said.

He added that the HomePure solution addresses this challenge via a unique eco-friendly nine-stage water filtration system, The Trumpet gathered.

“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,” he explained.

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.

Fall further stressed that safe drinking water challenges faced by many families in Nigeria has reached a tipping point – and calls for creative thinking and solutions from stakeholders.

“In Nigeria, more than 130,000 children die of water-related diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea annually.

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.

The forum provides a unique platform for the world’s water community and key decision makers to collaborate and make long-term progress on global water challenges.

The World Water Council, notably through the organisation of the World Water Forums, has strongly contributed to positioning water as a global political priority.