By Ismail Auwal
The Minister of Water Resources, Mr Suleiman Adamu, has said that Nigeria needs about N6 trillion to meet the demands for water supply infrastructure.
The minister disclosed this at the 28th Regular Meeting of the National Council on Water Resources in Abuja.
Funding, weak water governance, and obsolete infrastructure are among the biggest obstacles facing the water sector’s long-term development, according to him.
The meeting, he added, provided an opportunity to examine recent advances in the water sector, analyze difficulties, solve recognized challenges, and design a path forward to address current issues.
A study of water governance, sustainable funding, and water service pricing, according to Adamu, is being examined.
The World Bank has contributed $700 million to help Nigeria implement its National WASH Action Plan, which aims to revitalise the sector through the Sustainable Urban and Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Hygiene (SURWASH) initiative, according to the ministry.
“SURWASH is expected to provide six million people with basic drinking water services and 1.4 million people access to improved sanitation services.”
“The programme will deliver improved WASH services to 2,000 schools and healthcare facilities and assist communities to achieve open defecation-free status,” he said.
Mr Olusade Adesola, representative of the FCT Minister, Dr Mohammed Bello, said provision of clean and safe clean drinking water to FCT residents was top priority of the Federal Government through the FCT Administration.
He listed challenges of population explosion, inadequate funding amongst others, saying implementable policies were underway to address this need.
