International experts in water sector have expressed worry over unprofessional and unscientific extraction of water resources through mass drilling of boreholes across the country.

They made the observation at a workshop organised by the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA), in collaboration with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Thursday, January 24, 2019 in Abuja.

Ms Lawrence Goorcy, an IAEA expert, said the aim of the event was to carry out analysis to ascertain the level of groundwater in order to prevent water crisis in the country.

Goorcy, who is also a Hydro-geologist, said that a team of hydro-logical management experts has been in the country for a week for critical examination of the nation’s groundwater resources.

“From our evaluation, there are gaps in the aquifer, and we are here to adopt scientific approach because this has affected some parts of the country.

“That is why sometimes we will have shortage of water in some parts of the country,” she said.

Earlier in his opening remark, Mr Clement Nze, Director-General, NIHSA, said the workshop was aimed at implementing Technical Cooperation (CT) project, tagged: “RAF/7019”.

According to Nze, the CT project will be implemented through International Water Availability Enhancement projects which embrace experts from international body to investigate Nigeria’s water resources management.

Nze said the rate of extraction of groundwater resources in Nigeria had become alarming, hence the need to engage international experts for critical examination to prevent the country from running into water crisis in future.

“If we are able to get proper rate at which groundwater is being replenish or recharged, we will be able to advise properly the rate at which we can engage in boreholes drilling.

“Our operation is just like we are mining without being replenished which lead us to water crisis.

“There is completely risk of depletion of water, like in Maiduguri in particular, there are three levels of aquifer.

“The first one is from 0 – 150 meters deep, the second aquifer level is between 150 – 250 m deep, the third one is 250 to 600 meters deep.

“It is observed that we have finished the first level and if we don’t guide against the rate at which people are extracting water from the ground, it might result in depletion of the second aquifer,” he said.

Also, Alhaji Suleiman Adamu, Minister of Water Resources, who welcomed the experts in his remarks, explained that the goal was to help government to tackle groundwater related issues in the country.

By Okon Okon

The Head of Department, Environment, Bwari Area Council, FCT, Mr Timothy Nwanna, has appealed to institutions to provide toilets for their customers to curb indiscriminate open defecation.

Nwanna made the appeal in Bwari, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), on Thursday, January 24, 2019 in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

He stated that the appeal became necessary due to complaints by some people that the council’s secretariat had been turned into a public toilet for passers-by.

The council area harbours the buildings of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) headquarters, Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), Bwari office, FCMB and the council’s secretariat.

‘‘Most of the offenders are customers of these public institutions. I am not trying to push blame or give excuses, but these institutions can come together under Corporate Social Responsibility and create a public facility for their customers.

‘‘It can be done, it doesn’t cost much, and it can help keep a hygienic environment, which would reduce spread of diseases because this is a very busy area.

‘‘As a council, we can enforce a monitoring team but if we do that in the day time, you cannot monitor what happens at night, the ATM works round the clock, so people still visit.

‘‘However, I strongly appeal to JAMB, AEDC and the bank to consider their customers and provide them with toilet facilities to ease themselves when nature comes calling at points of transactions,” Nwanna said.

The head of department also decried the general mindset and attitude of Nigerians with regards to open defecation and indiscriminate urination.

He, however, called on members of the public to assist in making the change possible by changing their habit of passing urine on roadsides and public buildings.

Nwanna also said that the area council was working tirelessly to ensure that indiscriminate dumping of wastes and dump sites in the council and its environs were tackled holistically.

He said the council was working with licenced waste control contractors, who would periodically visit houses to collect wastes in their trucks at meagre amount to dispose at the town’s major dumpsites.

This, he said, would depend on the final arrangement between the council and the licencee’s, with the assistance of the litter control casual workers employed by the council.

On the issue of refuse in Mpape area of the council, Nwanna said that the council’s administration was collaborating with the FCT Satellite Town Development Agency (STDA) to evacuate wastes in the area.

‘‘The Chairman is collaborating with STDA to bring in contractors that would do the job, it is a work in progress, waiting for procurement, I assure you, any moment from now, the wastes would be evacuated.”

Residents of Mpape had made several calls since 2018 on the council to intervene in evacuation of refuse in the densely populated community of the territory. 

By Veronica Dariya

Global activists, thought leaders, labour unions and human rights advocates will congregate in Abuja from January 29 to 30, 2019 for a national summit that will make advancements on achieving the human right to water in Nigeria and around the world.

The summit, which has “Nigeria’s Water Emergency: From Resistance to Real Solutions Against Corporate Control” as its theme, is organised by the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), Corporate Accountability, Public Services International and other groups on the platform of the Our Water Our Right Coalition to set the agenda for rejecting water privatisation and securing universal water access in Nigeria and across the globe.

Participants will come from communities across Nigeria, the United States, India and other cities that have faced harms caused by the private water industry. Impacted people from Flint, Michigan, Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania in US, and Nagpur in India will testify to the harms and human rights abuses they have experienced from water privatising giant Veolia, which is said to be running for a contract to manage water in Lagos, Nigeria’s most populous city.

Members of the US Congress will also participate remotely alongside the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Water and Sanitation, Leo Heller, and the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty, Philip Alston. The Vice President of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo; Minister of Water Resources, Alhaji Suleiman Adamu; and members of the National Assembly are also expected.

Among other objectives, the summit will strengthen the solidarity between civil society groups, labour unions, activists, policy makers and the media to resist privatisation in the water sector and advance real solutions to lack of access to water within the realm of public-public partnerships.

Nnimmo Bassey, Chair, Board of the ERA/FoEN, said: “Water is a human right which should not be subject to the whims of privatisers.  This is the key message of the Our Water Our Right Coalition and this is the message that participants in the Abuja summit will reinforce.”

“Water needs to be in the hands of people, not corporations,” said Shayda Naficy, campaign director with Corporate Accountability. “Movements around the world are demanding an end to the corporate control of this vital resource; it’s time for governments and the World Bank to heed our calls and end the promotion of water for profit.”

Advocates are in unanimity that water privatisation, often backed by institutions like the World Bank, has time and again failed communities and often resulted in raised rates, labor abuses and public health crises instead of increased water access.

After the conclusion of the Abuja summit, the Nigerian parliament is set to discuss a precedent-setting water bill that could also reject water privatisation.

The summit will end with a communique that the organisers believe will chart a path forward for the future of access to water for the African continent and millions around the globe.