Water mgt key to devt agenda – NIWRMC

Jos – The effective management of water resources is a key to the attainment of Nigeria’s quest to accelerate its water development goals.

The Executive Director of Nigeria Integrated Water Resources Management (NIWRMC), Mr Inuwa Musa, made the statement at the opening of a two-day mini-summit of the Nigeria Association of Hydro-geologists (NAH) in Jos, yesterday. The theme of the summit is, Linking Professional Associations with the 7-Point Agenda and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Musa, who was represented by Mr Akin Aletan, NIWRMC Director of Catchments Management and Water Utilisation, said water was ahead of all other natural resources in terms of its contribution to the attainment of the MDGs and the 7-point agenda.

The director put the distribution of water resources in Nigeria to about 267 billion cubic metres for surface water and 526 cubic metres for underground water per year.

In view of this, he said, groundwater development required careful assessment, planning, designing and harnessing, which could only be achieved by trained personnel coming together.

He said water resources was undergoing various problems, such as indiscriminate development, noting that significant growth in groundwater exploitation was carried out by unskilled personnel in Nigeria.

“If this is not checked, I am afraid, we are going to run the risk of not meeting the targets for the 7-point Agenda and the MDGs,” he warned.

“What is even more worrisome is the fact that the environment is at a risk, river flows and health sector will be affected if proper technology is not applied.

“All these rest on the need for our professionals to have a re-think on how the industry should be managed and stand up to their responsibility or else quacks will take over,’’’’ he said.