Water Woes, Friendly Foes

"Water no get enemy." When Fela Anikulapo Kuti released that song in 1975, he was repeating an old Yoruba truth: water is life’s indispensable gift. No one in their right mind fights it. Yet every day, we do.

We were born in it. We grow our food with it. We use it to cleanse, to heal, to pray. Childhood lives around rivers and rain. Water carries us from first breath to last. So why are we slowly killing it?

A friend once ended an argument I thought I’d won. I said electricity mattered more than water.  “Go back to Genesis,” he said. “Before God said ‘Let there be light,’ the Spirit was already hovering over the waters.”  

Whether you share the theology or not, the point sticks. Water is not an afterthought. It is the stage where life begins. Somewhere we forgot that. We did not inherit clogged rivers. We made them.

Photo Source: Victor Zaviano

The Friendly Foes

Like blood in veins, water must move freely. Instead, we block it. We dump refuse in gutters. We pour untreated waste into streams. We build on wetlands and drainage channels. Then we act surprised when floods enter our homes.

Across Nigeria, the evidence is everywhere. In Ondo State, plumbing expert Mr. Sikiru John, with 15 years on the job, has watched rivers die. Fishermen poison water to catch more fish. Sewage and refuse are discharged daily into bodies that once fed entire communities.

In Lagos, the Commissioner for Waterfront Infrastructure Development, Dayo Bush-Alebiosu, puts it plainly: most flooding is man-made.

The problem is not just individuals. A LightRay! Media reports in 2025 covered flash floods in Ondo City, where blocked channels turned rain into rage. Water does not seek revenge. It simply obeys gravity._https://lightraymedia.org/2025/10/12/surviving-flashfloods-when-the-rains-turned-to-rage-in-ondo-city

In Saluwa community, Ondo City, residents have begged authorities for years over wastewater from a nearby eatery poured into open drains. The smell is constant. The fear of disease is real. One woman who fries buns before dawn stopped complaining.  “The people responsible are stronger than us,” she said.  

The business sits on swampy land. To protect itself, it diverts waste into public channels and, at times, toward the Saluwa River. A fix with 4-inch PVC pipes failed. One property’s protection became a whole community’s burden.

The Hidden Bill

Polluted water is never free. Someone always pays.Families pay in hospital bills. Workers pay in lost days. Children pay with their health. Businesses lose customers who avoid foul-smelling streets. Governments pay by funding emergency response instead of schools and hospitals.

A plastic bottle in a drain looks small. Multiply it by thousands and you get collapsed roads, destroyed crops, closed businesses, and displaced families.

The United Nations estimates billions still lack safely managed water and sanitation. Behind that number are girls missing school, women walking miles for safe water, and farmers watching harvests fail because rivers are sick.

Water is not just an environmental issue. It is health. Economy. Food. Human rights. Peace.That is why SDG 6 — clean water and sanitation for all — is not only about boreholes. It is about protecting what we already have.

At the 2026 Water Communications Training for World Water Week, Australian communicator Jonathon Captain-Webb put it differently. Drawing on First Nations wisdom, he said: water is not a commodity. It is a relationship. The health of water and the health of people are the same. A dying river is a warning.

When Water Finds Another Way

We call it a flood. Water calls it flow.When we block its path, water finds another. That is not nature’s anger. It is physics. It is the result of refuse-filled waterways, wetlands paved over, and laws that exist only on paper.

LightRay! Media reported it in Ondo. We see it every rainy season in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Makurdi, and Ibadan. Water has never declared war on us. It has fed us, powered us, and carried civilizations. The irony: those who need it most have become its friendliest foes.

Credit: Author

From Foes To Guardians

The good news: the same hands that pollute can protect. Industries must treat wastewater before discharge. The government must enforce environmental laws consistently, not selectively. Communities must stop using drains and rivers as dumps. Planners must respect rivers instead of forcing rivers to respect concrete.

And as individuals, it starts small: don’t dump in gutters. Reduce plastic. Report illegal pollution. Join clean-ups. Teach children that a stream deserves the same respect as tap water.

This is not charity. It is economics. Every naira spent protecting water saves ten spent on healthcare, flood recovery, and repairs. Clean water grows agriculture, fisheries, tourism, and jobs.

Protecting water is one of the highest-return investments a nation can make.I think back to my friend’s Genesis point and smile. Before light, there was water. Life begins with care, not domination.

Water asks for very little: room to flow, a chance to stay clean, and the freedom to keep giving life. If we keep poisoning rivers and blocking channels, we will keep paying in damaged health, broken economies, and lost futures.

The cost of fighting what keeps us alive is too high.Fela was right. "Water no get enemy". The tragedy is, water never chose its enemies. We did.

It’s time to stop being water’s friendly foes. And become its faithful guardians. Because when water flows, life flows with it.