Abuja – The Minister of Water Resources, Mr Suleiman Adamu, has reiterated government`s commitment to provide regular potable water for all Nigerians by 2030.
Adamu restated this at a Workshop on State Water Agencies Performance Assessment and Benchmarking in Abuja on Wednesday.
“We are working to ensure that all Nigerians have access to potable water by 2030 through urban water sector reform programme.
“We realise that implementing the first and second urban water reform programmes have resulted in moderate success and improved piped water supply, if we put more efforts, we can achieve more.’’
He said Nigeria would do everything possible to reform the water sector because of its centrality to health, agriculture, and others.
He said the ministry had created a data bank and census for water supply and sanitation for all water infrastructures in the country.
Adamu emphasised the need for attitudinal change toward public utilities, saying Nigeria must begin to see the importance of paying for water consumed.
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He stressed the role of political will and commitment from state actors and chief executives in funding water, saying they are the decision makers in parts of the country.
He said the ministry would continue in its advocacy to ensure that governments begin to allocate more funds for such projects.
The minister commended the World Bank for funding water projects in the country and pledged government`s commitment to increasing fund allocation to water.
Mr Benson Ajisegiri, Head, Water Sector Reform, Federal Ministry of Water Resources, said no government could recover the cost of improving water supply immediately.
He stressed the need for all stakeholders to scale up access to water through concessionary loans.
He said that the country was making steady progress in its bid to provide water for all its citizens.
According to him, all tiers of government must go into partnership to reduce barriers to water supply.
Ajisegiri said although urban water supply was expensive, continuous efforts were needed to increase access to finance to improve water infrastructure in all parts of the country.
“Urban water supply is very expensive because it requires substantial money on infrastructure development’’, he said. (NAN)
