As part of efforts to support the federal government’s agricultural drive, the Minister of Water Resources, Engr. Suleiman Adamu in the interview with JOHN OBA, said the country has secured $495 million irrigation facility.
It is five years now since the management of the water sector was entrusted to you, how far have you gone?
Thank God, for this administration, a lot has happened and a lot is still happening. I took over the affairs of this ministry on the 12th of November 2015, and the first thing we did was to do a retreat, following which we Developed a roadmap for the water sector for 15 years, from 2016 to 2030. Why do we do that? It is because the water resources sector is a very wide and dynamic sector, most of the projects takes years to crystalised. In the planning itself most of the water resources projects take years, and implementation also takes years, so we are not looking at a four-year project, we are looking at a generation, so that is why we have a 15-year programme.
And it also has the new Water Resources Master plan which was revised in 2013 to commence operation from 2016 to 2030. Again, it also has the Sustainable Development Goals which is to run from 2016 to 2030. So it was only natural that we equip our roadmap with that. That road map consist of a lot of issues that we need to speed up certain policies that have not been adopted like the National Water Resources policy, National Irrigation and Greenish Policy.
We were able to successfully, pass the policies through the Federal Executive Council, we have some issues with the Water Resources Bill which we are addressing, and the Bill is currently before the National Assembly. We also looked at the situation on ground concerning some projects that were being implemented. We inherited a debt profile of N89 billion, and we need another N200 billion to finish the projects, some started way back 1997, some 1982 and still not completed. Some have been abandoned for about 17 years or more, so we quickly took an audit of all the projects and decided which ones are of priority, and from 2015 till date, we have finished more than 20 projects, even this year, we are hoping that we will be able to finish about five dam projects. Because we inherited a total of 37 dam projects, 43 water projects and 38 irrigation projects.
We have finished few water projects and irrigation projects including Ijobu water supply project that is to supply Katsina that was started in 1992. I know we may not finished all the 116 projects but we took a decision that we are not going to start any new projects in the first four years of this administration. And if these projects are for the benefits of the masses, why don’t we concentrate on the most important ones and finish them? And that is what we have been doing. As early as September 2016, we have commissioned some projects such as the Kasabilla Dam etc.
You said alot about water provision, this brings to mind the Water Resources Bill, what is the position of this Bill?
We are working on it. Believe me, if we don’t get this water bill passed, a lot of the transformation we want to make in the water sector, especially in respect to water supply and water resources development in general will be in jeopardy. The Bill has been misunderstood by so many people. These laws are already there, we are only consolidating them into one booklet. People don’t understand that currently as Minister of Water Resources, I have enormous power as regards the water sector, I can decide on what to do concerning any water source, I can decide to build a dam wherever I want without recourse to anybody, but with the law in place, the community must have a say in that, so the powers of the minister are whittled. If this is not for the good of the country, why would I as minister be championing something that will whittle my power.
And what people don’t understand is that federal government must be the custodian of water in this country because rivers cross states and any state can decide to dam either River Niger or River Benue, and if that happens what do you think will happen to Lokoja or Idah, Onitsha, or in the Niger Delta because the River flow has been distorted. So the federal government has to be the custodian of these rivers so that it can regulate it for the benefit of all. That is what this bill is all about.
Talking about the private sector, paucity of fund has been the major challenge,
how have you been able to explore the private sector to solve this problem?
Like I told you, we prioritised, we are not just throwing money or spreading ourselves too thin with no effect on the projects, so we consolidate our funds and throw them into the project that we will be able to finish, that is one. Number two, you may notice these days that we are signing MOU with states, now, it’s partnership. Every state we are dealing with especially on water supply, we go into partnership. We do certain aspects of the work and the state do other aspects. That way, the federal government save some funds to be able to use them elsewhere. We also create ownership with the state, because when they know that they have invested money in the project, they would never take it for granted.
Some projects we are slating them for PPP especially the hydropower projects. That way we relief the federal government of spending money. We are talking with development partners who are ready to support us. We are discussing with the World Bank on $700 million facility, and we already secured a $495 million facility for irrigation, and we have started talking about TRIMNING too, so that there will be a phase two. The world bank is very much interested now in helping us to develop our agriculture because they see a political will under the Buhari administration.
More concern about water investment, when are we going to be seeing water taps. Also on open defecation, is Nigeria looking at adopting the Indian model?
On water investment, our target now is to first improve the water supply, and unfortunately, we at the federal government are frustrated, because we have the National Urban Water Sector Reform Programme. We are on the third phase now, the idea behind that is to help improve the capacity of Water Boards, water corporation and corporatised them, so, they can run like companies, so that government can stop interfering with the way they operate, so that they can meter people, generate revenue to be able to put back into the water scheme and hopefully use it to invest more, some states are working with the money which is a loan, but others are not. The federal government does not have a water board, it is not our responsibility to provide water in the taps, but we have done everything possible to ensure that state governments are alive to their responsibility and to give water the priority it deserves. We should not be going into vanity projects and edifices at the expense of water. I would rather prefer that my cities have water and health facilities first before I start dualising roads and putting street lights. Until we do that, I don’t think the issue of water taps can come in, again the states are the ones responsible for collection of revenue, so they should be able to prioritise this.
