Minister of Water Resources, Engr. Suleiman Adamu has said the proposed water bill which seeks to harmonise all the statutes in the sector was to protect the rights of Nigerians and the environment as they deploy water for domestic and commercial use.
He dismissed allegations that the 13th version of the water bill was designed to regulate or deny Nigerians the right to access and use water for whatever purposes.
Adamu said this at the media parley at the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja.
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According to him, the false narrative being peddled in the public domain by persons who do not have the interest of the poor people at heart was only to derail the good intentions of the bill designed to meet international best practices in Nigeria while they advance their selfish interest which the law conflicts with.
He wondered why a state government would not prioritise water supply to her state and people in a safer measure than risk public health through the uncoordinated sinking of boreholes that have shown many boreholes dug by septic tanks and exposing the consumers of such water to health hazards.
‘’Now that all land issues will be in accordance with the Land Use Act that means state governors will continue to exercise their powers over land.
“There is nowhere in this bill where anything is mentioned that the federal government will take responsibility for any land, not even one square inch or one square millimetre or one square micro millimetre in this bill, nothing whatsoever.
“So go out and tell the citizenry the truth about this bill. People are trying to mislead Nigeria for whatever interest and we know that some of them have been sending this false narrative since this issue started.
“And for them to maintain their credibility, in the public face, they have to continue to spew these lies to the world. And they think they can remain relevant because once the truth is out, they would have lost credibility or integrity. Others are doing it because they are taking water in commercial quantities.
“‘They are taking this water, mining water and selling it to poor people, even when they had the opportunity to improve the water services in their own locations. They don’t want to pay the necessary licensing fee. And let me tell you based on the delegated powers of the minister, as we’re talking today, the national integrated waters management commission has even the right to seal premises. The laws are there.
“Those people because of their vested interests, personal interests. They don’t want to pay the fees while they are selling water to poor Nigerians. They don’t want to go and subject themselves to licensing and therefore they are attacking and trying to discredit the bill for their own personal interest.
The National Assembly has gazetted the bill for an act to establish a regulatory framework for transboundary water resources in Nigeria, providing for the equitable and sustainable development, management, use and conservation of Nigeria’s inter-state surface water and groundwater resources; and for related matters, 2022.
The house bill 2024 is registered as C 1601 and sponsored by Hon. Sada Soli, house committee chairman on water resources has come under public scrutiny and suspicion being dispelled by water engineers and authorities.
Stakeholders in the water sector, Barr. Tanwa Koya said the bill addressed all concerns while projecting safe water usage nationwide while the national president, borehole association, Francis Uzoma, stated that the bill would promote safer water usage and prevent the experience of sinking boreholes by septic tanks hereby compromising the public health by some unprofessional entrants in the sector.
and then