Rising cost of pure-water: Average families return to borehole water

Forum 1 year ago

Rising cost of pure-water: Average families return to borehole water

The adoption of a long-forgotten lifestyle has become the order of the day for most Nigerians, who are trying to survive the hardship imposed by the present economy.

A lifestyle where children and women visit the houses of water sellers with buckets to buy drinking water is back.

With as low as N5 per five litres, an average family will have some water to drink.

Back then, the water was preserved in aluminium or plastic tanks.

Tankers usually come and fill the tanks, where average families can come and buy in plastic jerrycans.

But with the advent of satchet water, popularly known as Purewater, apparently due to some kind of treatments it undergoes, these set of water sellers went into oblivion.

Sachet water is a common form of selling pre-filtered or sanitised water in plastic, heat sealed bags.

At inception, it was easy to buy a bag of satchet water, which contains 20 satchets, at a cost of N50.

However, with the high cost of satchet water, average families are now wearing the I-don’t-care mask, to embrace drinking borehole water again.

It is surprising that as against N50 per bag of 20 satchets, a few years ago, a satchet now costs N50.

Economy&Lifestyle discovered that many homes complained that with the skyrocketing cost, an alternative was imperative.

Consequently, many homes now drink borehole water, and those without boreholes visit places where there are boreholes to fetch water at a cost of N50 per 25 litre, or for free.

According to Mrs. Oluchi Momoh, a trader: “There are times when we want the best but can’t have it. Before, I bought bags of purewater directly from the company at N120 per bag.

She said: “I have a family of six and each of us drink at least a bag and half a week. That is nine bags of sachet water at N1,080.

“Now a bag is sold for N250 from the company, costing me N2,250 per week. How do I account for that. And the children don’t know how to manage the water. So, I now fill plastic bottles with tap water and put it in the fridge, and it has helped me cut costs a lot, especially in this period where there are no sales.”

Mrs. Adeyinka Falola, a private school teacher, said:”In my house there is no borehole. There is a building six blocks from my house. That is where I now buy drinking water. They have a borehole and a tap outside. A 25 litres bucket of water is N50.

“I have stopped buying sachet water since it became N300 per bag. I have a family of five and my husband and kids take a lot. We can consume three to four bags of sachet water within two days. They have even reduced the size of the sachet.

“Before, a sachet of water would fill a 75cl plastic bottle but now two sachet hardly fills it.

“My neighbours do buy tap drinking water from the house. On our lucky day water is given free.

“Everyone is managing and the salary is not increasing. It is just static with the price of things going up.

“It has been January since I received my last salary and business is not booming for my husband who is an Air-conditioner repairer and installer. So we have to cut costs by all means.”

Households’fallback to tap water has also affected sales of sachet water…retailers lament low patronage

Mrs. Dupe Omoniyi, a provision seller who also sells sachet water said:”I used to buy 15 dozens of pure water which was bought within a week. Then you can get a bag for N150.

“As the economic situation worsened, the purewater companies were lamenting because of the increased cost of production.

“They increased the price to N150 per bag. Satchet water that was N5 per sachet was sold for N10.

“Now it is sold for N200 or N250 depending on the company. A sachet is now N20 while a bag is sold for N300.

“Since then I don’t buy more than three dozens because people don’t drink satchet water again. Many houses have borehole water. They just fill bottles with the water and put it in their fridge. If they don’t tell you or you see it, you won’t know.

“It is with luck that I sold three dozens of satchet water bags in two weeks”.

Mr. Jeremiah Akpan, a satchet water company truck driver cited the cost of materials coupled with that of transportation and diesel for power as reasons for the increment in the cost of sachet water.

“It is not our fault that sachet water is expensive. The cost of buying nylons for packaging has increased. Even the cost of transporting them to various destinations is expensive.

“We now come to the area of power which you know is epileptic in Nigeria. The cost of diesel to power generators for production is also expensive.

“This also reduced the quantity produced.

“Also, most of the retail stores complained that their customers no longer buy sachet water due to its cost and this made them cut down on the quantity they order which has also made us reduce production quantity.”

Borehole water is water from under the earth. It can’t be used for every form of consumption such as cooking, watering edible vegetables and drinking without purification treatment.

In Nigeria, borehole water has gained cognizance as almost every home, both personal and commercial has it.

However, not all borehole water is treated.

The Sustainable Development Goal target 6.1 calls for universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water. The target is tracked with the indicator of “safely managed drinking water services” – drinking water from an improved water source that is located on-premises, available when needed, and free from faecal and priority chemical contamination such as sulphate.

According to the World Health Organization, contaminated water and poor