Abuja – The Ministry of Water Resources has presented the National Water Resources Master Plan to President Muhammadu Buhari with a pledge to achieve 100 per cent supply of water to Nigerians before 2030.
The Minister of Water Resources, Alhaji Suleiman Adamu made this known to State House correspondents after the presentation of the document at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Wednesday.
According to him, the master plan x-rays all what the ministry supposes to undertake between now and 2030 with specific interventions to achieve the objectives contained in the plan.
“The National Water Resources Master Plan identifies all the key issues (projects) the ministry should undertake between now and 2030.
“So, we (President Buhari) x-ray that master plan and he (President Buhari) accepted it and he came out with some specific interventions that we think it would take the water resources sector to a more robust level by the year 2030.
“So, essentially, that is what we came to do.
“When we were appointed we had a retreat in Dec. 2015 and we came out with specific action plans and we kept developing them and now we are in the position to inform the president and to seek his blessing, and that is why we are here.’’
The minister lamented that over 50 million Nigerians were yet to have access to water supply as the country only achieved 69 per cent coverage of water supply in the country.
“You know we subscribed to the Millennium Development Goals.
“By last year, 2015, we were supposed to have achieved 75 per cent coverage for water supply and certain percentage for sanitation.
“Unfortunately, we were not able to meet that. We made the water supply by only 69 per cent and we did very, very poorly in sanitation,’’ he added.
According to the minister, the smooth implementation of master plan will enable the country meets the Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDGs) targets in the water resources sector.
He said that the master plan would also be unveiled in details at the forthcoming National Council on Water Resources, next week.(NAN)