THESHIELD Garkuwa
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By Suleiman Adamu, Sokoto
No fewer than 260 large and medium dams with a total of 34 billion cubic meters of water had been constructed by the Federal government across the country.
The dam projects were part of deliberate efforts of the federal government to drive its agenda of harnessing surface and ground water for drinking, irrigation and power generation in the country.
The disclosures were made on Thursday in Sokoto by the Minister for Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu while addressing
participants at the 29th regular meeting of the National Council on Water Resources (NCWR) .
The meeting was tagged: ” Actualising Sustainable Development Goal-6: Prospects and Challenges”
Adamu explained that the country had potentials of about 333 billion cubic meters of surface water and about 156 billion cubic meters of groundwater, which could be harnessed to meet the current nation’s water supply demand.
The Minister hitherto, said the ministry was tact in promoting integrated water resources management principles for sustainable management of available water resources in the country.
Accordingly, Adamu stressed on sustainability of the gains in water supply adding that there was the need to ensure and enhance the mechanism for effective collaboration amongst stakeholders in the water sector pointing out that doing so would holistically harness the rich potential and maximise the benefits of the huge capital investment in the completed and functional dams, water supply and irrigation infrastructure .
In the same vein, he disclosed that the ministry was in initiating and fast tracking more projects and programmes to improve urban, small town and rural water supply.
Adamu further said that the ministry had constructed 6,761 water supply schemes in the urban, semi urban and rural areas to meet the needs of about 32 million Nigerians.
He acknowledged and commended the government of Aminu Tambuwal, Sultan of Sokoto and the people of the state for accepting to host the council meeting in the state while urgi g participants at to get meeting to use the opportunity by contributing towards strengthening the national water policy.
Speaking, governor Tambuwal noted that provision of potable water was a shared responsibility among to the three tiers of government while commending the federal government for holding the council meeting in Sokoto.
However, the governor represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Mainasara Ahmed urged the council to diligently discuss the memos submitted by stakeholders for consideration.
Accordingly, he called on the FG to reconsider the optimum utilisation of Shagari, Goronyo, Lugu and Bakalori dams.
