Over 50 million Nigerians still have no access to portable water- Minister

Over 50million Nigerians still live without access to portable water as the Federal Government plans to unveil National Council on Water Resources, Minister of Water Resources Suleiman Adamu said yesterday.

This is towards ensuring a 100% access of water for all Nigerians as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030.

Nigeria could only meet 69% of its 75% target for the provision of water for Nigerians as as part of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

“We met the water supply by only 69% but we did very poorly in sanitation,so this 69% means over 50million Nigerians still don’t have access to portable water and that is a huge number of people,so we have come up with a programme which we are going to unveil in detail at the National Council on Water Resources meeting next week,that programme is aimed at ensuring we are now able to meet the SDG target for 2030 and there will be 100percent access for everybody.

“If we can achieve it in the next ten years, we will be very happy but the target is to get it before 2030 so that we can celebrate the same thing with sanitation,so we have a huge programme which was also part of the package we presented to Mr President today that will help us achieve those targets to cover those gaps we have identified” the minister told journalists after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Adamu said he had come to brief the President on some institutional issues relating to the water policy which had been in existence though in draft form and the national water bill which has also been in draft form for more than ten years as well as the national water strategy.
“So we dusted all these things because for us to take the water resources sector to where we want it to go or where it should go,these institutional issues and legal frameworks need to be in place.

“So we have to bring them out to make sure that we get them going to get the bill passed into law,to get the national water resource policy and strategy adopted, so if those things are ready it can help in the other interventions or other programmes that we planned which includes the national water supply and sanitation programme and the national irrigation programme.

“For these programmes we have projected some programmes for four years and others five years up to the year 2030” he said.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), had in a report said 50 million Nigerians openly defecate while more than 100 million others are without access to improved sanitation.