Water is abundantly available as a natural resource specifically for human use and existence; however, its accessibility in adequate amounts for diverse uses and purposes by humans poses a major challenge, especially in developing countries like Nigeria. Safe and clean water availability and accessibility is another major hustle threatening the existentialism of man. Apart from being a major determinant of achieving the Good Health and Well-being of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3, water is the driver of metabolic processes in the human body, leaving no one behind for Access to Clean and Safe Water (SDG 6). People living in the metropolis usually experience public health issues of access to clean and safe water, hence the inclusion of SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities. Community remains one of the settings for health promotion and only healthy individuals can birth a healthy community. The basic provision of clean and adequate water supply remains a requisition of man to sustainably live by SDG 11.
Water is one of the scarce resources; despite its seemingly abundant occurrence on earth, its conformity to the regulatory standards determines its quality for human consumption (Malakar et al., 2019). Water of poor quality negatively impacts human life thereby jeopardising the SDG 3 campaign of good health and well-being. Water of poor quality is a result of pollutants which are traceable to the physical, chemical and microbiological parameters and whose deviations from the standards negatively obliterate the water quality (Traoré et al., 2023).
An example of the parameters is the heavy metals (HMs). The HMs are elements with derogatory effects across the spheres (biosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere) of human existence in food chains and webs. The sources which release the HMs into the surroundings include manufacturing, agricultural, urbanisation, and nature-driven activities (Briffa et al., 2020).
Earth metal extraction with waste rock, dust and tailings releases Hg, Pb, Cd, As, and Cr into the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere, thereby affecting their qualities. Industrial effluents, emissions, and wastes also give off Hg, Pb, Cd, Cr, Ni, and Cu to the surroundings. Wastewater sludge contains arrays of HMs, which can pose threats to the surroundings' soil, water, and air. Diffuse-associated sources, which are not limited to corrosion, erosion, abrasion, or volatilisation, can release some of their HMs, which include Pb, Cd, Hg, and Zn, into the surroundings. The most threatening points and parts of these HMs are their non-biodegradable but bio-magnification and essential metal replacement capacities with human and ecological health risks (Priya et al., 2023).
The bio-magnification health and ecological implications of the HMs are dictated by the type, dose, duration, route of exposure and contact with the HMs. Thus, water exhibits poor quality when contaminated with HMs and other pollutants, thereby affecting human health with various associated diseases and symptoms when ingested and dermally bathed with such water (Zhang et al., 2023). The indices for both ingestion and dermal contact with water were agreed for usage as indicators for assessing good water quality as an observational study had it that merely comparing analytical results with the regulatory limits hardly gives a clear idea about serious health danger that could occur from the toxic heavy metals (Omali et al., 2023); this further buttresses the fact that water of good quality is imperative to humans wherever they live. Moreover, stakeholders and scientists are craving to make risk assessment possible via various indices and simulations for the sake of modelling and prediction of water parameters for quality determination. The results of all these quality assurances no doubt contribute to good health and well-being across cities and communities for sustainable living.
To establish water asset proficient administration, Krishna et al. (2019) examined 120 samples of groundwater between the summer/ dry season and winter/ wet season using a combination of multivariate analyses and risk assessment in India and linked the degraded water quality to urgent attention which includes judicious land uses, proactive planning for the existing industries, designing of mitigation techniques, and effective implementation of the laws which exist. The lost qualities in the water were associated with various pollution sources while the health risk indices showed that the qualities could be restored provided treatment measures are integrated. Otherwise, the realisation of good health and well-being as well as sustainable cities and communities with respect to the assessed water might be in shambles. Monitoring in this case was suggested to be two-sided, temporal and spatial, to meticulously trace the pollution source.
Three states in India were selected for four water sources: surface water, hand pump, wells, and municipal water, while nearly 50 people were picked for As and Hg urinalysis and examined for ill health using ingestion and dermal indices for health risk assessment (Mawari et al., 2022). The researchers concluded with the need for routine water source monitoring around the sampled locations because of the determined illnesses which included gastric discomfort, abdominal pain, and stool. In another study, sixty groundwater samples of three grouped locations were explored by Rashid et al. (2023) to evaluate various metals' loads and physicochemical parameters of groundwater at Malakand, Pakistan, with respect to water quality, geochemical speciation and hydrochemistry, spatial distribution, and health risk assessment. The parameters determined exceeded the WHO guidelines, thereby suggesting geogenic, anthropogenic, mixed sources and nearly 70% severe groundwater pollution from the multifaceted approach it adopted. The water samples were said to be unwholesome for consumption, agricultural application, and even domestic demands. The possibilities of actualising either SDG 3, SDG 6 or SDG 11 are far from reality, as opined by the research overview of Rashid et al. (2023).
Moreover, Chen et al. (2021) dived into the adoption of groundwater for drinking and irrigation purposes using a water quality index, graphical technicalities and health risk assessment for ingestion and dermal in the Xinzhou Basin, Shanxi Province, North China. The adopted methods unanimously informed that the samples were nearly 70% drinking and 90% irrigation-worthy. The 30% and 10% deviations from drinking and irrigation compliance, respectively, made the study solicit reasonably remediating strategies for sustainable protection of the groundwater quality to have good health and well-being.
In addition, Nguyen et al. (2021) assessed 14 groundwater samples in wet and dry seasons for ingestion and dermal health risk in the Xuyen Moc District, Vietnam. It was discovered that the presence of F, Fe and Pb elements in the water samples subjected the residents’ (especially the children's) health to non-carcinogenic effects, thereby buttressing that good health and well-being (SDG 3) is not realisable, let alone sustainable city and community (SDG 11) for the Xuyen Moc district being studied. Two years after the study, sixty well water samples whose determined parameters' values were compared with national guidelines and computed for ingestion and dermal health risk assessment by Nguyen & Huynh (2023) at the Mekong Delta, Vietnam, showed that 30 and 26% were respectively very good and unsuitable for consumption. The kids were also said to be more at health risk danger than the adults.
Another study, which involved six multifaceted (Standard comparison, WQI: water quality index, HHI: human health index, MAS: multivariate analytical statistics, ANNM: artificial neural network models, and GIS: geographic information system) approaches, was deployed in El Kharga Oasis, Egypt by Gad et al. (2023) to assess fates of 140 groundwater samples' pollution and possible realisation of Sustainable Development Goals 3 and 11 of the United Nations, which are good health and well-being, and sustainable cities and communities respectively. The approaches unanimously observed that Fe and Mn element levels were higher than the WHO limits, most water samples belonged to poor and very poor categories, there was low risk from dermal and ingestion health assessment, and both natural- and human-induced pollution was possible. Conclusively, the research sought indulgence for cutting-edge measures to prevent possible outbreaks of water-related issues. By the following year, Mohamed et al. (2024) adopted six indices with multivariate analyses to model possible health risks associated with ground- and surface water in Siwa Oasis of Egypt. The findings showed that most assessed water samples subjected their users to various health issues, such as the carcinogenic effects from Cd, Cr and Pb in either children or adults who bathed with and consumed the water. The results made the researchers convincingly clamoured for water treatment within the vicinity of all sampled water sources to protect the environment and human health. The SDGs 3, SDG 6, and 11 were shown to yet be realised within such study locations.
Donuma et al. (2023) realised that the quality of the ten water samples analysed within the Keffi metropolis, North-central part of Nigeria, did not conform to the WHO limits, although the water quality index indicated good to excellent quality, while the two (ingestion and dermal) indices used alongside showed the water consumers were not prone to significant health risks. Failed in one and passed in the other made the researchers suggest frequent monitoring of the water sources to avert becoming of poor quality for Good Health and Well-being of SDG 3 and ascertain sustainable cities and communities with respect to water quality. Omali et al. (2023) observed that the consumers of the 27 ground- and surface-water samples across six local councils in Abuja, North-central part of Nigeria, were prone to high risk of contracting cancer as the computed index for ingestion, unlike dermal was unacceptable for both age (children and adults) groups. The researchers recommended the replacement of dumpsites with landfills to decrease health risks while ensuring the attainment of SDGs 3, 6, and 11 of the United Nations, which shall reign till 2030.
Twenty-four groundwater and ten table water samples were assessed for metal loads and risk assessment within the Nassarawa local government of Kano State, Nigeria (Salihu et al., 2019). The levels of Cd, Cr and Pb were determined to subject the water consumers to unacceptable cancer risk from the computed ingestion index. Olamilekan et al. (2018) compared the results of the borehole and hand-dug well water sampled in the Ebocha-Obrikom area of River State, Nigeria, with NAFDAC and WHO limits to which some parameters were deviated. The observations triggered suggestions for comprehensive sources' monitoring and appropriate treatment of the sampled water to help in the realisation of good health and well-being (SDG 3) and its associate (SDG 11) considered in this study. Five hand-dug wells for 30 water samples were compared with WHO limits and health risk assessment of ingestion and dermal in Omu-Aran, Kwara State, Nigeria, by Elemile et al. (2021). The results showed that 5 over 7 analysed metals exceeded the WHO limits, while ingestion but dermal index indicated non-carcinogenic effects for all the samples. So, the right of the consumers to good health and well-being (SDG 3) in a sustainable city and community (SDG 11) is infringed, i.e., not guaranteed. The study suggested community awareness of the dangers associated with its water sources.
Ibitoye & Okende (2016) adopted three-in-one visualisation (GIS: geographic information system, GPS: geographic positioning system and RS: remote sensing) techniques to spatially investigate public water supply within Osogbo and its environs. The results found and conditionally stated that optimal functionality of all the facilities would produce 30 to 35% of the total covered area water accessibility and supply. Data were gathered from three intentionally chosen residential neighbourhoods representing low, medium, and high-density areas, with a cumulative population of 134,159 and an estimated 26,829 households. Thus, the then water accessibility and supply could not meet the Millennium Development Goals. Furthermore, the recently conducted study of Adedotun et al. (2024) examined the possible sources and utilisations of water availability in Osogbo by considering the socio-economic characteristics of the randomly and systemically selected households across low, medium and high-density areas via multistage sampling techniques. The considered areas and their available water utilisation indicated a positive correlation, which was statistically significant, thereby making the study recommend necessary joint efforts of concerned groups (individuals, communities, NGOs) and government to tackle the issues of water provision across the considered areas.
The current study doubted if the outcomes of water studies had successfully been linked with the Sustainable Development Goals 3, 6 and 11 of the United Nations on the one hand, nor had there been any adoption of health risk assessment to verify the quality of the available water, particularly in Osogbo and its environs let alone Osun State in general.