. .

Apparently, these objectives are crucial and a product of brilliant paperwork, but it is music to the ears of Nigerians because of the failure of governments to implement well-crafted policy objectives and strategies over the years. Literature on water resources in the country indicates that after deliberate steps by governments in the 1970s and 1980s, which led to the construction of multipurpose dams, subsequent governments have paid lip service to water resources. The dams were “To control flood, provide water for domestic and industrial uses, control riparian rights releases and for the environment, hydro-power generation, fishing, livestock, inland waterways and irrigated agriculture among others.” At that time, 200 dams were constructed, targeting 340,000 hectares of irrigated land. Most of these dams were mismanaged or abandoned, frustrating the objectives for which they were built. Now, not more than 20,000 hectares of land is irrigated.

Today, there is no infrastructure to support the regulatory role that the bill is meant to give to the Federal Ministry of Water Resources. In many parts of the country, water boards exist in name, just to enable civil servants to receive salaries for idleness. In a typical city, like Abuja, the population that accesses water from the FCT Water Board may not be up to 30 per cent. The situation is worse in the rural areas, where peasants depend on water from ancient streams, ponds and rivers for drinking and domestic use. Most boreholes constructed under the National Assembly constituency projects have failed due to inherent corruption in project execution.  Nigerians depend on self-help, drilling boreholes for households and communities. Government has not added enough value to the natural water resources to the benefit of the population. At most, its efforts have been plagued by inefficient operations, inadequate maintenance, financial losses and unreliable service delivery.

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