The Nigerian government has expressed its determination in providing clean and safe accessible water to Nigerians especially to the people living in the rural communities.
The Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu said this during an interactive section with journalists in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
Mr Adamu said it was the desire of the Federal Government to see that access to clean water and sanitation improved so as to meet the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
He said that to properly access and manage ground water resources of the country, the Federal Government has drilled and instituted 70 Groundwater monitoring wells across the major aquifers of the country.
According to the Minister, “Emerging financial and management challenges for sustainable water infrastructure in Nigeria holistically review development in the sector, water governance, operational water infrastructure, climate extremes and impact on water infrastructure”.
Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu
The Minister added that the present administration had a budget line of N2 billion to support States in urban water supply through an approval of the National Water Resources Policy by the Federal Executive Council in 2016.
“Apart from Gombe State, hardly has any State come forward because they had not met the requirements, no water supply master plan, and we put these conditions, not because we want to punish them, but because we want them to do the right thing.
“States need to put these things in place, we cannot just be giving out money when we are not sure that the money given will make the necessary impact’’.
Open defecation
The Minister recalled that the ‘Open defecation free’ (ODF) Campaign was launched in November 2019, and was aimed at mobilising high level political support, resources and the entire populace towards building a new culture of safe sanitation.
He acknowledged that Nigeria needs all the necessary support to ensure that the ODF Campaign gains traction with all stakeholders playing their part.
The Minister called for more commitment from States towards eliminating public defecation, saying that only 76 open defecation-free local government areas presently exist in the country.
He added that this was unimpressive.
The Minister emphasised that the ministry had trained and inaugurated 77, 400 youth volunteers to act as hygiene ambassadors. He stated that this is to scale up sanitation and hygiene in the country.
Adamu said the National Youth Volunteer Programme on Hand-washing was Federal Government’s intervention scheme to curb the spread of COVID-19 pandemic and end open defecation in the country.
According to him, the engagement of 100 youth volunteers in each of the 774 local government areas entails community sensitisation and awareness creation on safe water, sanitation and hygiene practices.
He added that the incoming government might inherit 60% of uncomplicated project, despite the efforts of the present government to finish about 35% of the entire project before the end of 2023.
Emmanuel Ukoh
