The Federal Government says it will not backtrack on the National Water Resources Bill 2020 despite criticisms from some quarters.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, told journalists in Abuja that the government had no hidden agenda as the bill was for the good of the nation.
He said many of those condemning the bill either had not read it or understood its provisions.
Mohammed appealed to Nigerians to read the provisions of the bill to avoid being misled by those politicizing it.
The framework for managing and regulating inter-state waters that is represented in the Water Resources Policy 2016 and this bill are similar (in some cases verbatim) with most international conventions and studies. It’s the same as in South Africa, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, and most developed Federal constitutions.
“It’s not correct to say the bill is capable of triggering ‘water wars’. Plus, the bill contains provisions that will ensure that internal conflict on water is averted. A possible source of internal conflict on water is if an upstream state decides to dam an inter-state water, thereby preventing it from following its natural course, thus affecting downstream users. On the contrary, the bill is the only panacea to internal conflict on water,” he said.
multinationals drill for water without approval
Also speaking, the Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, said multinational companies were using Nigeria’s underground water resources for commercial purposes without obtaining licences.
He said without a law to protect Nigeria’s water sector, indiscriminate usage would not be curbed.
He noted that the Federal Government is not responsible for provision of water, saying it is the responsibility of state governments.
Adamu said the Federal Government had spent a lot of money on water projects which the state governments had abandoned.
He dismissed insinuations that the proposed law would prevent Nigerians from drilling borehole for household use without permission from Abuja.
He noted that the regulatory provisions of the bill requires that commercial borehole drillers obtain a licence.
“Borehole regulation is an international standard for abstraction of large volumes of water. Most countries in Africa, and almost every developed country, regulate commercial abstraction,” he said.
The minister allayed the fears that the bill sought to implement RUGA by subterfuge.
