After working for about seven hours on his cassava farm during the dry season in February 2018, Nathaniel Ogina approached the stream that runs through his farm in Iyamitet, a community in Nigeria’s Cross River State. As he crouched at the streambank, the change in the water’s colour startled him.
“I noticed the strange colour of the water. It was orange instead of the clean water we were used to,” the 30-year-old recounted.
But thirst overcame his hesitation. He drank the water despite its odd appearance, only to be disappointed by an unusual taste and the sudden onset of stomach pain. “The taste was different, and I started feeling a kind of stomach pain I had never experienced before,” he recalled, his gaze cast downward.
