By YANGE IKYAA
The minister of water resources, Engr. Suleiman Adamu, has stated that water quality is one of the components of water resources management currently receiving greater attention of the government relative to what was obtainable previously.
Engr. Adamu stated this during the opening workshop of the Technical Committee on Nigerian Standard for Ambient Water Quality and Validation of the Nigerian Roadmap for Water Quality Management, which held at Hawthorn Suites in Abuja on Tuesday.
He also stressed that the previous poor attention to water quality management, which had impacted eco-system balance, economic growth, public health, and education, resulting in inequality and climate change, has been upturned by the present administration.
The minister expressed his ministry’s determination and commitment to further improving water quality and sanitation systems in Nigeria.
He emphasized that the commitment to doing so was reflected in various completed and on-going projects and programmes under the ministry with respect to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector, especially in the drive to end Open Defecation and improvement in resource quality management.
Statistics from the 2021 WASH National Outcome Routine Mapping (NORM) show that about 23.2% of the Nigerian population practice open defecation, while 55.5% of the population do not have access to basic sanitation services. This heightens the need to redouble efforts and work together to meet the nation’s WASH needs and make good progress towards achieving the SDG on water and sanitation targets.
The ministry of water resources says it is aggressively mobilizing the entire country towards ending the practice of open defecation which had placed Nigeria on the global map as the country with the highest number of people indulging in this act from October, 2019.
Adamu assured that the valuable views and issues that will be raised during the technical committee meetings will be collated and incorporated accordingly in order to produce acceptable documents to propel service delivery in the Nigerian water sector.
Earlier in his address, the director general , Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Mallam Farouk Salim, who was represented by Mrs Omolara Okunlola, the director of inspectorate compliance at SON, noted that the technical committee meeting is a critical stage in standard development process where knowledge, expertise, experiences and scientific information and data are shared by the members to achieve consensus.
The meeting is normally attended by MDAs, development partners and other relevant stakeholders.
