Abuja (Nigeria) – Nigeria’s Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Mrs. Rabi Jimeta has said that the Federal Government is committed in meeting with the national aspiration by providing save water and improved sanitation for all Nigerians in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and African Union after Vision 2025.
A statement by the Ministry’s Director of Information and Public Relations, Margaret E. Umoh noted that, Mrs. Jimeta made this known recently when she declared open the 23rd National Technical Committee meeting on Water Resources in Abuja.
According to her, “If you have noticed, water is very critical to all the SDGs 17 goals, so we are looking at how we can focus our strategy on the sustainability of water in meeting with all the goals.”
She added that, a lot of memoranda have been taken from State Government and key stakeholders, who will discuss extensively on all aspect and adopt a robust strategy in actualizing the set goals.
She also charged the participants to come up with memoranda that would improve access to water supply and sanitation in their respective states and for the development of the sector in Nigeria.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Capital Territory Dr. Babatope Ajakaiye said that without adequate clean water, there can be no escape from poverty; noting also that, available statistics on water are not encouraging. “Water is the basis for good health and food production. Water pollution, poor sanitation and water shortages kill over 12 million people worldwide every year,” he stated.
He therefore called for good policy formulation in the water sector that would support sustainable management of water resources by blocking all leakages and ensure that available resources are prudently utilized.
Speaking also, the Chairman House Committee on Water Resources, Hon. Ahmed Aliyu Pategi charged all stakeholders to take serious all the deliberations as the outcome will impact on lives of over 170 million Nigerians.
To him, the importance of water as a resource cannot be over emphasized so, 50% of the Natural Resources Fund should be appropriated to Water Resources.” It is very expensive to build water assets like dams there are small dams that go for 100 million and above. Kashimbilla dam for instance is a billions of naira project”, he explained.
