As Covid-19 sweeps across Africa, water shortages have become a core focus for many policital leaders both at home and in Africa with drastic measures being taken in many African cities to tackle water shortages.

Cape Town’s historic shortage in 2018 led to South African authorities narrowly avoided disaster by rationing drinking water to 50 liters per inhabitant per day in a city that was used to consuming large volumes of water.

The World Health Organization’s number one recommended protective measure against the coronavirus is to wash hands frequently with soap. Ensuring the availability of safe water for all is clearly vital to keep up the fight against the spread of COVID-19 and future pandemics.

However, in many parts of Africa, people in urban areas where the virus is at its worst find it hard to access even basic drinking water let alone finding water to wash their hands and maintain good, quality hygiene standards.

Water, where it is available, is often sold at a premium putting the most hard up in Africa at even greater risk of contracting the virus and with poverty stricken households and the malnourished at greater risk of complications health services could quickly become overwhelmed with an escalating death rate across the continent.

Now more than ever is there an urgent need to bring fresh drinking and bathing water to the people of Nigeria and for Governments to sit and take notice in oder to avoid a humanitarian crisis. This may not be the last pandemic and it certainly won’t be the end of disease caused by dysentery and cholera. Let’s hope carbon neutral technology can bring relief and a better quality of life for millions of African for many years to come.