The importance of water to humanity cannot be overemphasized as truly, water is life. All efforts to provide clean water must be seen as efforts to protect humanity as water is very invaluable to human existence.
Globally, as this year’s World Water Day is celebrated, more attention was drawn to the issue of water, its provision and how it could be used to generate more and better employments. The theme of this year’s Water Day was tagged “Water and Jobs” and the event, was primarily to demonstrate the connections between access to water, decent jobs and creation and the workers.
Mr. Guy Ryder, the Director General of International Labour Organisation (ILO) led the global awareness as the Chairman of UN-Water for this year’s celebration. The focus, this year relates appropriately to jobs and employment generation through provision of good water.
Stressing the importance, Guy Rider, said the livelihood of many workers depends on the quality of the freshwater, relating it to a few like the farmers and fishermen.
“There is no life without water; and the fact that access to water underpins all our efforts to achieve sustainable development is undoubted” – he said.
The World Water Day, to Ryder provides, “a great opportunity for UN agencies, non-governmental organizations, enterprises, unions and citizens to come together to make a call for better water and better jobs.”
In Nigeria, the ILO has undoubtedly provided interventions over the years to the Governmental and people of Nigeria in the areas of decent job and employment creation.
To understand where Nigeria as a country is coming from as a nation, and how the new focus could be achieved effectively, the ILO, identified and highlighted the major employment challenges which have to be met, as a result of the global economic and financial crisis facing the country, as well as the long standing employment crisis.
