Suleiman Adamu, the Minister of Water Resources has stated that the sum of N6 trillion is needed to meet the demands for water supply infrastructure in the country.
According to NAN, the minister said this at the 28th regular meeting of the National Council on Water Resources in Abuja while speaking on the theme, ‘Emerging Financial and Management Challenges for Sustainable Water Infrastructure in Nigeria.’
Describing the meeting as an opportunity to discuss developments in the water sector, evaluate issues, address identified challenges and chart a way forward towards resolving contemporary challenges, Adamu highlighted the major challenges facing the sustainable development of the water sector were funding, poor water governance, obsolete infrastructure amongst others.
Adamu said that the World Bank had committed 700 million dollars to support Nigeria in its National WASH Action plan towards the revitalisation of the sector through the Sustainable Urban and Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Hygiene (SURWASH) programme.
He said, “SURWASH is expected to provide six million people with basic drinking water services and 1.4 million people access to improved sanitation services. The programme will deliver improved WASH services to 2,000 schools and healthcare facilities and assist communities to achieve open defecation-free status’’