The Minister of Water Resources, Alhaji Suleiman Adamu has reiterated the commitment of the Federal Government to provide potable water to the citizens.
Adamu emphasised that though it is the responsibility of state and local councils to supply water, the Federal Government would provide the necessary support to achieve this.
He made this known after a tour of some projects and commissioning the Secretariat of the National Water Resources Capacity Building Network at the National Water Resources Institute (NWRI), Mando.
The minister revealed that a new programme known as Partnership for Extended Water Sanitation and Hygiene would be launched soon to ensure adequate water supply and sanitation in public places and the rural areas.
“It is not the primary responsibility of the Federal Government and the Ministry of Water Resources to provide water to the people. It is the duty of states and local councils to do this.
“The Federal Government’s responsibility is to manage the entire water resources of the country. If there are re deficiencies or they need new source of waterways, we develop them through building of dams and so on. It is left for the state and local councils to treat water and distribute to their communities,” he said.
“We can do better than now if we have more funds. Also, we need to go back to proper planning of our projects and programmes. We have the National Water Resources Masterplan that has never been utilised fully. We need to adopt it and move on,” he noted.
The Executive Director, NWRI, Dr. Emmanuel Adanu said: “The recent approval by the Federal Executive Council of the National Water Resources Bill, National Water Resources Policy and The National Water Irrigation and Drainage Policy stand would aid the NWRI in its mandate to provide efficient services.”