Water everywhere…

Nigeria’s population has remained steadily on the increase in the last 40 years or more, a development, which, no doubt, has become a huge concern to economic planners in the country. Large population has brought about undue pressure on the available infrastructure, many of which have been stretched to the very limit across the country.
The situation is worsened by the fact that no significant attempt has been made in the past couple of years to either provide new basic infrastructure or upgrade existing ones, leaving many people wondering when the situation would ever improve. Indeed, all the sectors of the economy are literally begging for urgent intervention to lift the situation and enhance the people’s lives.
One critical sector, however, which appeared to be very seriously affected by the rapidly increasing population is water. The development of  infrastructure in this key sector has become not only inevitable, but also compelling due to rapid urbanisation and the quest for decent living, in addition to the population high population growth.
As a country, we have had severe water and infrastructure crisis over the years which had taken its toll on the populace, resulting in avoidable deaths and debilitating illnesses. Not surprising, therefore, at a meeting with the Japanese Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Ryuichi Shoji, during the signing of agreement for a N2.42 billion grant to increase water supply coverage in five states of the federation, namely: Kebbi, Niger, Taraba, Ondo and Enugu a couple of months ago, the Minister of Water Resources, Mrs. Sarah Ochekpe, was full of lamentation. She expressed disappointment that about 70 million Nigerians lacked access to potable water.
Said she on the occasion: “The current water supply service coverage in the country is 58 per cent, which is about 87 million people. This translates to lack of potable water for about 70 million people. In the rural areas, only 42 per cent have access to potable water supply. Many of our children are also dying of diseases associated with water-borne diseases such as cholera, typhoid, diarrhoea and river blindness.
This is unacceptable to the current administration and is, therefore, focusing more attention on the water sector.” Corroborating this statement at the 11th session of Development Partners Coordination Meeting, the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Dr. Godknows Igali, expressed regret that Nigeria ranks third on the list of countries with inadequate water supply and sanitation coverage globally, describing the situation as heart-breaking.
“Nigeria has obtained third position as one of the world’s poorest countries in gaining access to water and sanitation,” adding: “The World Health Organisation and UNICEF report for 2012 ranked Nigeria third behind China and India, as countries with the largest population without adequate water and sanitation.
The challenge is critical as women and children trek long distances to fetch water from streams and ponds which are most times contaminated.” In the 1960s, 70s and even early 80s, our leaders at the two key tiers of government were able to provide treated drinking water to the people. They realised that water is the most basic of human needs. Unfortunately, all that changed with time, no thanks to rapid population growth, corruption, poor planning and insensitivity of our leaders.
The relevance of water to national development cannot be over-empahasised. It is required for human consumption and basic survival, irrigation for the much-needed agriculture and food production, hydro-power for the generation of electricity, fisheries, recreation, environment protection and industrial production among many others. Lack of water in every human habitation and environment, therefore, has grave consequences particularly on the quality of life of the people.
However, there is something to cheer about. Ochekpe, the water resources minister said the low access to potable water by Nigerians was unacceptable to the current administration, promising the Federal Government would collaborate with stakeholders to increase access to water supply in the country. This, no doubt, must have informed the rebirth of the water sector reform of the Jonathan administration.
The transformation agenda in this sector is geared towards increasing national water supply access from 58 per cent to 75 per cent, national sanitation access, available reservoir capacity, total irrigable land, drained farmland, job creation as well as enhancing rural development programmes in agriculture. To the credit of the present administration, Nigeria’s story in the water sector is changing.
Taking into congnisance the well coordinated current policies and projects, the country no doubt would soon be singing a different tune in the sector. In any given area of human endeavour, it is the commitment and dedication of the leaders that makes the difference. What the country requires is the injection of more funds into the sector to bring about a complete transformation. Reviewing achievements and challenges in the sector in the last one year recently, Ochekpe pointed to tremendous success in the implementation of the programmes and initiatives and overall improvement in water infrastructure across the country.
From available records, there is a tendency to believe that a lot has and is still being done to bring about improved water supply in the country. Let us look at the various projects in different parts of the country in the water sector. In the water supply department of the water resources ministry, the following projects have been completed: Northern Ishan water supply project in Edo State.
This project completed at a cost of N2.5 billion has a plant capacity of nine million litres per day and comprises raw water intake, a treatment plant complex, transmission mains and distribution network, ground level and overhead reservoirs. It serves Uromi, Ubiaja, Ugengu, Ugboha and Igueben communities. Also, Mangu water treatment plant in Plateau State has been done. This project was executed at a cost of N1 billion and has a capacity of 10 million litres per day. It serves immediate communities of Gindiri and Mangu townships. There is also the greater Makurdi water supply scheme.
This project executed in collaboration with Benue State government cost the Federal Government N2.2 billion and has a capacity of 50 million litres per day. There are such ongoing projects across the country as Okirika water supply scheme in Rivers State (N830 million), Ojirami water supply project in Edo State (N966 million), Takum water supply rehabilitation scheme in Taraba State (N263 million), central Ogbia regional water scheme in Bayelsa State (N4. 7 billion), Biu water supply reactivation in Borno State (N8.5 billion) and Usman Danfodio water supply improvement in Sokoto State (N40 million).
Determined to ensure increased water supply in the country, the Ministry of Water Resources, in addition, undertook the revision of estimated costs of long abandoned projects in some parts of the country. These projects, which have already been cleared for execution, include the Zungeru/Wushishi water supply project in Niger State (N2.1 billion), Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi in Benue State (N180 million), completion of Okpilla water supply scheme in Edo State (N800 million), rehabilitation of ABU Zaria water supply in Kaduna State (N465 million) and Fika-Gadaka water supply in Yobe State (N300 million).
Again, the ministry has reactivated the abandoned federal rural water supply programme with the injection of about N1 billion in the onerous task of ensuring greater access to water supply. Not only has it completed a total of 545 hand pump schemes and 836 motorised boreholes across the country, it has also rehabilitated an estimated 1,000 dysfunctional hand pump boreholes in 18 states spread across the six geo-political zones of the country. The minister disclosed that the ministry had equally partnered state governments and the private sector, including international organisations in the provision of water supply across the country.
Many rural settlements, semi-urban and urban communities in the federation have benefited from the ministry’s demand- driven initiatives. In the same vain, its department of dams and reservoir has, through conscious efforts, constructed and rehabilitated some 33 major dams and 28 earth dams scattered across the country.
And in line with government’s policy directive to increase energy supply to meet the country’s energy demand, the ministry has since commenced the integration of small hydropower schemes into some dam projects in collaboration with the Ministry of Power. It carried out studies on some of the completed and ongoing dam projects for the purpose of hydropower generation. Nineteen of these dams are said to have the potential to generate a total capacity of 3,557 megawatts of electricity. Some of the dams are Gurara, Oyan, Ikere Gorge, Bakolori, Dadin Kowa, Tiga, Kiri, Jibiya, Challawa Gorge, Owena, Doma, Waya, Mgowo, Zobe, Kampe, Kashimbilla, Ogwashiku, Zungeru and Mambilla.
Also, in the last one year, the ministry completed a total of 15 irrigation projects covering the 36 states of the federation and the FCT,  with irrigation potential of 316, 000 hectares for the production of assorted crops which automatically created about two million jobs in the agriculture sector. It is currently pursuing the development of more irrigable land to boost food production across the country.
The country, as at today, has advanced in water quality control and sanitation. At present, Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach is being practised in 32 of the 36 states of the federation. The relevant department in the ministry is also engaged in the monitoring and verification of Open Defecation Free (ODF) communities in seven donor states and eight non-donor states.
This is all in an attempt to ensure healthy living in the country. According to Ochekpe, government, as a policy, does not just provide water. It ensures that water so provided is of good quality and therefore, safe for human consumption. In this regard, the ministry has established six water quality laboratories in Minna, Enugu, Gombe, Lagos, Kano and Akure for monitoring the quality of different sources of water nationwide, while the construction of another set of six new laboratories is ongoing in Sokoto, Makurdi, Port Harcourt, Asaba, Maiduguri and Umuahia, respectively.
Government, she said, plans to have additional 12 water quality laboratories in the country by the year 2013. Again, water quality surveillance safe storage and household treatment project is being undertaken in six pilot states of Ebonyi, Oyo, Cross River, Taraba, Zamfara and Niger and would be scaled up to 12 more states, namely Gombe, Adamawa, Kebbi, Kaduna, Plateau, Kogi, Ogun, Lagos, Enugu, Imo, Bayelsa and Rivers.
Given such challenges, as the budget implementation cycles, releases, closure and return of unused fund to the treasury, which do not favour the water sector because most of the projects are executed during the dry season and have longer gestation period than one budget cycle; the poor funding and inadequate and untimely releases of funds to the projects, leading to project abandonment and cost escalation arising from review of project costs as well as the dwindling budget provision to the ministry over the years, one can say with certainty that some progress has been made in the sector.
The importance of water to man and the environment is such that there should be the political will on the part of government which should translate by way of increased funding to the sector for the country to be able to deliver in the sector. The welfare and wellbeing of the country and the people, to a large extent, are dependent on it.