The Executive Director, National Water Resources Institute, Olusanjo Bamgboye, on Tuesday, called on all stakeholders to put in place policies to effectively manage Nigeria’s water resources.
Bamgboye said it was saddening to note that the countries’ water resource was not being managed properly.
According to him, indiscriminate drilling of boreholes, poor sanitation and poor water management culture were factors affecting water resources in the country.
Bamgboye said the use of some fertilisers, pesticides and manure had been known to also promote water pollution.
He, however, called for a law which would seek to address the challenges of effective water resources management in the country.
“Pesticides, manures affect many rivers, lakes and oceans. It reduces water quality, impacts agricultural production, drinking water supplies and figure production,” Bamgboye said.
He said poor sanitation and hygiene was an effective way for water bodies to become polluted, adding that this was the leading cause of faecal-oral diseases.
The executive director said water scarcity was occurring in some parts of the country due to overuse of surface and ground water for irrigation, and neglect of natural water cycle.
He said the challenges were affecting the attainment of water supply project of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS).
Bamgboye recalled that the institute signed a Memorandum of Understanding with six federal universities to boost water resources management in the country.
While noting that the universities would focus on areas of specialisation, he said the North East and South East states would focus on gender mainstreaming and water pollution respectively.
Bamgboye said no fewer than 200 persons had been trained, adding that low budgetary provision was causing delays in continuous capacity building.
He added that staff of the institute, based in Kaduna, had now upgraded themselves, hence the introduction of new programmes.
“The institute is coming back with a brand new project that is based on staff experience.
“The institute will also encourage polytechnics and universities to run water resources engineering courses,’’ Bamgboye said.
NAN
