Minister of Water Resources, Engr. Suleiman Adamu, says the River Basins in the country have been reactivated to boost massive employment and commerce as agricultural policy a key component of the federal government’s economic diversifi cation programme. JOHN OBA brings excerpts of the interview.River Basin’s agricultural components reactivated to boost employment, commerce – Adamu
About 3 million Nigerians do not have access to portable water, how do you intend to achieve water and sanitation SDG goals by the year 2030? We are really not happy that we are not only able to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target, but were six points short of the 75 percent target.
Aside from the percentage achievement, you will realise that it varies from urban, small towns and rural areas and even a lot of the rural areas still do not have access to portable water supply Th ere was no achievement in sanitation, in fact, it was a complete disaster, we retrogressed and there was nothing to show for whatever was done. Th is was the situation that I found when I assumed offi ce. Now, we are committed to meeting the SDGs because we do not want to fail again like we failed in the MDGs, and we have taken a number of measures.
First, we have launched a new programme for expanded water supply and sanitation and through that programme, we want to ginger the states because the responsibility of providing water supply to consumers rests with the states and the local governments and not the federal government. Our responsibility is to provide block water, which they can tap and use to treat water to distribute and collect revenue in the various towns and villages but the states have not been able to do that.
Most of the failures to meet the MDGs were because the states did not invest as much as they should have invested in the area of water supply and sanitation and the federal government could not do it alone. So we have introduced PEWASH. In PEWASH, the federal government will support but not 100 percent.
If the states are ready to invest more, the federal government will provide the marching investment to stimulate and ensure that they are alive to their responsibilities. We need to galvanise the whole country because even if the entire budgetary allocation is combined from the federal, states, local governments it will not be enough to meet the SDGs.
Th erefore, PEWASH is not only about the states and the federal government intervention, but also to mobilise the entire society. We want corporate organisations to use their corporate social responsibility fund to invest in water and sanitation, and we want individuals and philanthropic organisations to also support water and sanitation. So we want the country to begin to see and think that water is probably the most important agenda because if we get it right with the water supply, we can reduce our health crisis by as much as 60 percent because most of the basic diseases are water related.
Then, we also know there are lots of challenges in water supply delivery, and because of the huge investment cost, 60 to 70 percent of most water scheme equipment are imported. So with dwindling resources, it is very diffi cult for states to come and invest so much money in water.
I still blame states because they don’t plan their water scheme but always look for quick fi xes. Instead of investing in four or six-year water development plan, they would rather want to construct boreholes for quick wins, which are not useful in the long run. Every politician wants to commission his own project within the life of his administration. This is very wrong, communities are there forever and they are also expanding in terms of population. We should be thinking of medium to long term water development in our planning.
I will say in the last 20 or so years, there is a failure in that direction. Finally, we hope to get our water resources bill passed into law that will enable the private sector to invest in water delivery in the country. Th ese eff orts will help us to achieve the SDGs. Last year, the theme of the World Water Day was, “water and job”, now one year after, how many youths has the ministry taken out of the street? Let me say that water resources activities take months and years to germinate. So, it is going to take some time for us to achieve that purpose.
Th e United Nations’ Study has shown that 70 percent of all existing jobs are water related, so the jobs are there. However, our deliberate plan to get the people off the street is being done under the 12 River Basins. In last one year or less, we have launched the Graduate and Youth Empowerment schemes in nine out of the 12 River Basins and the idea is to bring young graduates and unemployed youths into irrigated agriculture and agriculture in general. We have taken a batch of 50 at a time.
Soon we are going to sign a deal with Sungay Farm in Cotonu, Benin Republic for each of the 12 River Basins to have a Sungay modern farm that will be replicated in all the senatorial districts. So it is work in progress. Also under PEWASH, we have opportunity for what we called Water and Sanitation Entrepreneurship.
We want to create a situation whereby people can own their own water scheme and earn a living out of it. Many think the River Basins are redundant, though they were expected to be in the forefront of agricultural development in Nigeria? Th e River Basins have been comatose and bastardised.
But we have changed the management of the basins which used to be a place for job for the boys. Th e political system was using the basins for patronage and any failed politician was sent there. Now, we are appointing professionals who know about irrigation, water resources management and development to man these River Basins. Also, before the umbilical cord between the ministry and the River Basins were detached, because the ministry was not really supervising them, now we have changed that, we are focusing on them, scrutinising their budget. For the fi rst time, we have insisted that the basins give us a four- year strategic plan, which they have all produced.
If you had checked the budgets of previous years, you would have noticed that River Basins renovated classrooms, health centres, bought sewing machines, tricycles and provided street lights. Th ese are not their business. We are having problems with some of National Assembly members and we are trying hard to convince them that the basins must be allowed to implement their mandate and not be bothered with projects that are totally irrelevant to their mandate. Already, we’ve identifi ed the basins as a major backbone to the agricultural policy of this administration’s economic diversifi cation programme.
So, it is a must that we get them to work the way we want them to. We are now getting them to take responsibility for catchment issues. In the budget this year, we have encouraged them to buy lots of hydrological equipment for data collection which they were not doing before. We have allowed them to invest more on equipment now. Under the technical committee on privatization and commercialization all their assets were sold.
We are encouraging them to restock and those equipment that are wasting, we have encouraged them activate them. We have restored the agenda that the basin be commercialised, so we have started partial commercialization of the basins before we go into full commercialization.
