Apart from the initial $550 million fund given by the World Bank to assist Nigeria to attain her transformation agenda in the water sector, the country is to get additional $350 million from the same international bank before year 2014.
This assistance, according to the Head of Private Public Partnership (PPP) and the Director, Urban Water Sector Reform, Ministry of Water Resources, Mr. Benson Ajisegiri, is coming on the heel of the manner the initial money was utilised by the ministry.
Ajisegiri, who spoke in Abuja, during the 2nd Training Workshop on Water Agencies Performance Assessment and Benchmarking, was optimistic that the forthcoming money would go a very long way in actualising the Vision 20-20-20 goal of water resources in Nigeria.
In his words: "Earlier, we have been faced with the problem of non-availability of safe and adequate water supply and resources, but with the initial $500 million assistance we received from the World Bank and the second face of $350 million coming up before 2014, Nigeria will be well sufficient in the area of water resource."
He explained that the money would be distributed to 12 States, with two from each geo-political zone of the country.
Earlier in his address, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources, Alhaji Baba Umar Farouk, had called on State governments to give water agencies the necessary support, which he said included the autonomy that would enable them achieve their tasks.
While expressing satisfaction on the growth of water sector despite the difficulties faced by the ministry, which he said included low revenue from customers, weak finances, and neglect of maintenance and assets deterioration, Farouk insisted that the growth would need to be commensurate with the demand of the country's population growth.
He said: "It is no news that the United Nations World Water Development has reported that the overall economic loss in Africa alone due to lack of access to safe water and basic sanitation is estimated at $28.4 billion a year, which is around five per cent of our GDP. Our nation continues to have the lion share of this loss due to our peculiar situation and the more we delay in addressing our water challenge, the more the loss we will continue to suffer."
The Permanent Secretary, who was represented by the Director, Human Resources in the Ministry, Mr. Adeboye Adeoye, therefore, called on all stakeholders in the water sector to ascertain their true positions in the stagnation cycle and begin to address them for enhanced service delivery to the citizens.
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Where have these millions and trillions on water been going, who's managing these huge sum knowing recent history of public utility and infrastructural contracts in parts of Northern Nigeria and major segment of east and Western Nigeria. How sustainable are these boreholes and dams in the long run ? These are many of the questions for answer to men and women involved in administration of these money and water projects. I am assuming that previous lessons in contract scams among Senators, House members and other Senior Public official in Abuja has been an eye opener , unfortunately of course, to the corrupt Jonathan regime although many of it all happened under the watchful nose of ex-President Obasanjo who was doing anything including turning his eyes the other way to consolidate position for a third or even tenth time if he was allowed to determine his exit strategy by trust . No living citizen , except friends of those inept men and women who'll do anything including to send the wives for prostitution in hands of those who're positioned to let them get the contracts they have neither the tools nor know how to perform There's not a single part of current item on the current list of essentials this nation did not spend so heavily on during Babangida's chop and I chop regime . Isn't that an irony that at a time many nations are spending less to rehabilitate existing utility and infrastructure , this nation is busy building what we have spent grossly to construct when prices were exceptionally affordable as if we're a new country ? I believe we've all had enough to learn from ,give me opportunity to head the nations government and I will not only cause citizens to grow beyond idiocy among leaders, I'll make sure there'll be no incentive to nurture any plot to corruptly rob the nation out of steam by pursing former looters through the universe even if I lost life in so doing. I wont be surprised to hear same story like we 'been saddled as in the past, after-all Jonathan regime has taken us aback to the very reason we had Biafra uprising and worse than IBB regime that reigned-in the economy with structural adjustment quagmire that sent the nation into involuntary bankruptcy in the name of structural adjustment regime . I sometimes fail to capture the stalled mental faculty od our citizens had the capacity to produce beyond their fair share at work in other lands including some of my former friends who were virtually sold to NASA at the end of graduation from U of T and other major colleges in Canada because of the unique knowledge and inventive capacity.