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28
Thu, Mar

Minister Reveals Reason For Water Scarcity In Nigeria

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The Minister of Water Resources, Engineer Suleiman Adamu, said the ministry has uncovered over 400 abandoned water projects, which he blamed for the acute water scarcity across the country. Adamu revealed this while appearing before the Senate Committee on Water Resources, for the budget defence, adding that some of the dams were cited where dams should not have been constructed. He said “We have over 400 dams but many of them have no utilisation downstream. Anybody can come and invest in the dams.” Speaking to the house on the budget for 2022, the Adamu presented N81 billion for his ministry while the N70.4 billion budget was for the agencies under the ministry of water resources. The capital projects for the entire ministry is put at N78 billion, personnel cost, N2 billion while the overheads was put at N278 million. Chairman of the Senate Committee on Water Resources, Senator Bello Mandiya who briefed journalists about the outcome of the sitting revealed what the Ministry has achieved so far. According to him the ministry has prioritized dams and that so far, twenty dams have been identified which will be completed in due course.

“The minister met about 400 water projects scattered all over the country. What he did was to prioritize because some dams were even cited where dams cannot be constructed.

“What he did was to prioritize and he has been able to complete some and decided to do others, about 20 of them from now till the end of his tenure. So, the ministry is very clear about this.

“If we compare and contrast what this government has done with previous governments in the water sector, you will realise that this government has done very well,” Mandiya revealed.

World Health Organisation (WHO) report of 2013, revealed that access to water supply in Nigeria was 67 per cent and access to sanitation facilities was 41 per cent.

An estimated 100 million Nigerians still lack basic sanitation facilities and 63 million are not able to access to improved sources of drinking water.

 

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