The federal government says that over 15 million Nigerians have benefited directly from water supply projects across the country.

The Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, made this known on Sunday while answering questions on Sunday, as a guest on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) forum in Abuja.

Mr Adamu said that the present administration inherited many uncompleted projects when it came into power in 2015.

According to him, the federal government alone provides water for more than 15 million people in the last few years.

“So, let me say this based on the rational report that we’ve done on Federal Government’s intervention alone.

“Because we inherited a lot of uncompleted projects like water supply, Zungeru-Wushishi water supply, Zobe water supply. Zobe project for instance, started in 1992.

“It was never finished then. But we finished it under this administration.

“We are almost likely to finish also Otta, which the project started in either 2003 or 2004. We’re working on it too.

“There are many others like Takum, Mangu, and a host of other projects. So we’ve been working with all those projects to ensure they are completed,” Mr Adamu said.

The minister said that in the rational report, the present administration found out that 30 per cent of the population were enjoying pipe borne water.

Mr Adamu alleged that the immediate past administration left the country in a bad situation, adding that the present administration was making every effort to ensure that Nigeria recorded progress.

“Where the world is going forward, we should also be making progress, we actually met the situation retrogressing.

“As soon as we came on board, in 2015, we changed the theme of our National Council on Water Resources to address the issues of urban water.

“Then the President declared a state of emergency in November 2018 on Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and we launched a new National WASH Action Plan,” he said.

Mr Adamu said in the action plan, responsibilities were shared among federal, states and local government levels.

“Now, this is what the federal should do.This is what the states should do, and this is what the local governments should do,” he said.

Mr Adamu said that the ministry also launched the Clean Nigeria Campaign, followed by an executive order, thereby, giving strength to the campaign.

He said that the ministry introduced the concept of a WASH fund in the Natural Water Resources Bill.

Mr Adamu added that the fund was not for the federal, but for the states and local levels, to enable them improve on water projects.

The minister said that there were other interventions by the ministry, such as Small Towns Water Supply Programme, National Urban Water Sector Reform Programme, among others.

He said that the World Bank supported the ministry in the implementation of the programmes.

Mr Adamu said that the World Bank also provided 700 million dollars to the Federal Government to support urban, natural water supply and sanitation in the country.

“Seven states will be enjoying $350 million and then $350 million is going to our campaign to improve sanitation and hygiene in the country.

“So, everything that we need to do at the federal level to support improvement of sanitation, hygiene and water supply in this country, we have done that,” he said. 

(NAN)