52.7m Nigerians Lack Access To Water Supply- Minister - Liberty TV/Radio - News - Voice For All! Vision For Alll!
Editor 4
March 24, 2019
The Minister of Water Resources, Mr Suleiman Adamu,says 52.7 million Nigerians have no access to water supply in the country.
Adamu disclosed this while delivering a lecture tomark the 3 Founders day ceremony of Edo University Iyamho onSaturday.
The lecture is titled  ” Water, Sanitation andHygiene for Sustainable Development’’.
Represented by the Managing Director of Benin-OwenaRiver Basin Development Authority, Mr Saliu Ahmed, Adamu said Nigeria wasunable to attain the MDGs which target water supply and sanitation due to poorinvestments, low capacity and other challenges.
“2015 National Water Supply Coverage (NWSC) was 69 percent, comprising urban dwellers 80 per cent, semi urban (small town) 68 percent and rural areas 60 per cent.
”This implied that 31 per cent, representing 52.7million Nigerians did not have access to water supply.
“Inadequate water and sanitation infrastructure,population increase and rapid urbanization have created a serious deficiency inthe quality of life of an average Nigerian.‘’
‘He said this created “dire consequences onsanitation, food, security, health, employment and standard of living”.
Adamu said that the ministry developed immediate andlong-term strategies for water sector tagged “the water sector road map toaddress the problem from 2016 to 2030.
He said Nigeria was not able to meet the MiliniumDevelopment Goals Target on access to water supply due to decline in access towater in the rural areas.
“With the water sector road map, concerted efforts mustbe put in place towards achieving 100 per cent access to water supply by 2030in accordance with the newly adopted United Nations Sustainable DevelopmentGoals (SDGs),’’ he said
The minister disclosed that an estimated $5 billionannual investment would be required to meet the MDG targets, adding that thecurrent level of investment in the sector was less than half a billion dollars.
Earlier, Gov. Godwin Obaseki congratulated theuniversity’s management on its achievements in the last three years.
“This was a goal we set out when we established thisUniversity.
“They’ve done well, but there’s still a lot to bedone. Our goal is to make this University a global university.
“The benchmark is not Nigeria, it’s the world. I wantby the next ranking, this university being ranked among the best on thecontinent.”
The governor said plans had been put in place topartner world class universities in its quest to be one of the bestinstitutions in the world.
The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Emmanuel Aluyor, said theinstitution was competing with global standards in terms of academic.
He added that the institution was looking forward toits first graduation ceremony in 2020.
“The standards we are competing with are not Nigerianstandards, they are global standards. We are looking at putting Edo Universityon the map of the world as a world-class University,” he said.
(NAN)