By Okon Okon
Abuja – International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has pledged to partner with Nigeria to promote safe water through its scientific methodology known as Radioisotope Tracers.
IAEA made the pledge at the conclusion of the technical section of a two-day stakeholders’ workshop organised by the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) in collaboration with the IAEA experts.
The workshop held in Abuja on Thursday, is to examine the groundwater resources in the country.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the IAEA’s role in water sector is to assess the sustainable allocation of water resources through a required scientific knowledge of water availability and quality.
The IAEA experts report issued after the workshop called for moving away from business-as-usual, to realise the opportunity for a more structured, comprehensive and collaborative process for integrating isotopes technology to increase water availability.
The experts revealed that there were some gaps in the nation’s aquifer due to proliferation of boreholes and the involvement of quacks in extractions of water resources indiscriminately across the country.
They said that the process had caused some parts of the country to have shortages in groundwater resources.
Mr Clement Nze, the Director-General of NIHSA, said that the rate of extraction of groundwater resources in Nigeria had become alarming, hence the need to engage international experts for critical examination.
Nze said that the initiative would prevent the country from running into water crisis in future.
The aim of the event was to carry out analysis to ascertain the level of groundwater by engaging the IAEA experts, having examined lapses in the country’s groundwater resources.
NIHSA and IAEA, therefore, sought the need to strengthen the capacity to conduct comprehensive water resource assessment in order to revamp the groundwater resources in Nigeria. (NAN)
