President Goodluck Jonathan has promised a more cooperative, more radical programme of action to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) goal of providing safe drinking water and hygienic sanitation by 2015.
According to the president, who was speaking at the Presidential Summit on Water, tagged, “Innovative Funding of the Water Sector,” which held in Abuja on Monday, this plan to implement the programme, is in line with his administration’s transformation agenda.
In his opening remarks, he recalled that in Year 2000, a Special Millennium Session of the United Nations General Assembly, adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and all member states of the United Nations (UN), including Nigeria, accepted and committed themselves to the attainment of the goals.
He said Nigeria made further commitment in Washington in April 2011 to scale up its investment in water and sanitation; and since the adoption of the MDGs, the country has continued to make progress towards attaining the water and sanitation goals.
He stated that with the overall objective of improving citizen access to this vital resource, successive administrations have made investments in urban, small town and rural water supply programmes, including the construction of dams around the country.
“Investments were made to boost various aspects of the sector, from the line budget and special funds dedicated to ecological matters and natural resources development and also through the repair and rehabilitation of water supply infrastructure,” he said.
“In 2011, we spent the total sum of N40.94bn. In 2012, the sum of N43.6bn was spent. This does not include our expenditure in the following projects: Goronyo Dam, N3.4bn; Kashimbila Dam, N38bn; Gurara Dam & Irrigation, N36bn; Ife Dam, N3bn. In 2013, we have proposed N39bn from line budget to be spent on water related projects. This will be in addition to funds the sector will receive from special intervention funds.”
However, he conceded that the situation in rural and sub-urban areas regarding access to clean water remains unacceptable, saying that on the average, only one in five rural households has clean water at home while most families collect water from unsafe sources, such as rainfalls, ponds, streams and rivers.
Estimating that over N350bn will be needed annually to meet the country’s water and sanitation targets, he promised to implement a more cooperative and more radical programme of action to meet the MDG goals in this sector.
He therefore urged the conference to explore new investment opportunities in this critical Sector, examine how water projects can attract more financing and new technologies, from both public and private sources, and consider how best to leverage our resources with the country’s partners and the international community to strengthen efforts towards meeting the set targets in 2015.
Dignitaries at the summit include former President of Ghana, John Kuffour, who is currently chairs the UN Water and Sanitation for All project; and former Nigeria President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.
