On March 22, 2012, the entire world will meet at a grand conference in France with each country presenting a score card on its performance in the supply of water to its people and the gains individual countries have recorded in Food Security. But for Nigeria, a country known as a short-distance runner and a routine failure in providing the basic needs for its people, TORDUE SALEM in this report with facts, figures and charts is afraid, we might be in for another show of shame.
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John Waterbury was the first to use the term, ‘The politics of Water’ in his book entitled: “Hydro-politics of the Nile Valley”.
The usage did not connote the brazen politics of subterfuge or the elbowing out of weaker countries in the game of global power. His intention was to put the water issue on the economic and developmental pedestal.
More than 200 countries of the world would meet on March 22, 2012 in Marseilles, France for the World Water Day with Waterbury’s idea in mind.
The World Water council sitting in Madrid, Spain, decided to fix the next World water day in Marseilles, France because of that country’s impressive record in water and sanitary services.
Morocco was the first country to host the World Water Day in 1997, Netherlands held it in 2000, Japan 2003, Mexico 2006 and Turkey took its turn in 2009.
At the event which will engender a brainstorm of expertise on water goals and food security, the Nigerian delegation will have little or nothing to tell the world about meeting hydro targets since 1960.
Nigeria’s achievements in the water and sanitary sectors are too few to present.
A small town of Wudil in Kano State, for example, tasted its first clean water, as recent as March 30, 2009.
According to United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), “less than 40% of Kano’s population of 19 million had access to clean water in 2004”.
The organisation has also rated Nigeria, “among four western African countries where less than half of the residents can access safe water”.
A United States’ ‘Water for the Poor Act, 2009’ report, states that only 17.2% of Nigerians have access to pipe-borne water, and about only “30% of Nigerians have access to adequate sanitation”.
A 2006 study adds that only 11 out of 36 states of the federation had more than 20 litres of per capita water supply, as only 7 states had below two litres per capita water supply.??
According to the former Senior Special Assistant to the President on Millennium Development Goals(MDGs), Hajia Amina Az-Zubair, Nigeria spent a paltry N45billion on provision of water from 2006—2009.
The yearly appropriations recorded major decreases from 2006 to 2009 as follows: 2006–N19.21 billion, N13.848billion in 2007, N10.761billion in 2008 and N1.700billion in 2009.
The ex-Presidential aide warned that if Nigeria must achieve its MDG target, or what ever targets on water, an estimated N16.74 billion must be appropriated and spent till 2015.
Yet the prodigal country has the natural make up to give its citizenry a better deal.
Annual rainfall over the whole country is estimated at 1,150 mm in the southeast. It is about 1,000 mm in the center of the country and 500 mm in the northeast. Annual pan evaporation is 2,450 mm in the southeast, 2,620 mm in the center and 5,220 mm in the north of the country.
Total cultivable area is estimated at 61 million hectares (ha), which is 66 per cent of the total area of the country. In 2002, the cultivated area was 33 million, of which arable land covered 30.2 million hectares and permanent crops 2.8 million. About two-thirds of the cropped area is in the north, with the rest about equally distributed between the middle belt and the south.
The Vital Link Between Water And Agriculture
The country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2003 was estimated at US$50.2 billion, and in 2002 the contribution from agriculture was reported by the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources to be 37.4 per cent, with about 90 per cent of the agricultural output coming from small-time farmers.
According to FAO estimates, “Nigeria is among those nations that are at the moment technically unable to meet their food needs from rain fed production at a low level of inputs and appear likely to remain so even at intermediate levels of inputs at some points in time between 2000 and 2025”.
FAO states that: “Farming systems are mainly smallholder-based and agricultural landholdings are scattered. Simple, low-input technology is employed, resulting in low-output labour productivity. Typical farm sizes range from 0.5 ha in the densely populated high-rainfall south to 4 ha in the dry north.
Water Resources
The country is well drained with a close network of rivers and streams. Some of these, particularly the smaller ones in the north, are seasonal. There are four principal surface water basins in Nigeria:
According to Ministry of Water resources records, the Niger Basin has an area of 584,193 km2 within the country, which is 63 per cent of the total area of the country, and covers a large area in central and northwestern Nigeria.
“The most important rivers in the basin are the Niger and its tributaries Benue, Sokoto, and Kaduna. The Lake Chad Basin in the northeast with an area of 179,282 km2, or 20 per cent of the total area of the country, is the only internal drainage basin in Nigeria”.
United Nations reports that the southwestern littoral basins of Nigeria , have an area of 101,802 km2, which is 11 per cent of the total area of the country.
Despite the country’s vast groundwater resources, located in eight hydro-geological areas together with local groundwater in shallow alluvial (fadama) aquifers adjacent to major rivers, the Country suffers an acute water shortage.
The Sokoto Basin Zone comprises sedimentary rocks in northwest Nigeria. Its yields range from below 1.0 to 5.0 litre per second (L/s).
The Chad Basin Zone comprises sedimentary rocks. There are three distinct aquifer zones: Upper, Middle, Lower. Borehole yields are about 1.2 to 1.6 L/s from the Upper unconfined aquifer and 1.5 to 2.1 L/s from the Middle aquifer.
The Middle Niger Basin Zone comprises sandstone aquifers yielding between 0.7 and 5.0 L/s and the Alluvium in the Niger Valley yielding between 7.5 and 37.0 L/s.
The Benue Basin Zone, according to FAO, is the least exploited basin in Nigeria extending from the Cameroon border to the Niger-Benue confluence. The sandstone aquifers in the area yield between 1.0 and 8.0 L/s.
The Southwestern Zone comprises sedimentary rocks bounded in the south by the coastal Alluvium and in the north by the Basement Complex. The South-Central Zone is made up of Cretaceous and Tertiary sediments centred on the Niger Delta. Yields are from 3.0 to 7.0 L/s.
Low-lying areas flooded during the wet season, known as fadama areas, are scattered across the ecological zones of Guinea Savanna, Sudan Savanna, and the Sahel . These diverse wetlands are said by Wikipedia, to be valuable for grazing, agriculture, and other domestic uses, and are deemed of international importance as breeding grounds for migratory birds, thereby having a global value for biodiversity.
Nigeria’s total annual renewable water resources are estimated at 286.2 km3 (Table 3). Annual internally produced resources amount to 221 cubic kilometers (km3), made up of 214 km3 surface water and 87 km3 groundwater, while 80 km3 of the latter is assumed to be overlap between surface water and groundwater. External water resources are estimated at 65.2 km3/year, being surface water coming from Niger, Cameroon, and Benin.
“Exploitable surface water resources are estimated to be 80 per cent of the natural flow, which is about 96 km3/year. Annual extractable groundwater resources are about 59.51 km3, distributed as follows: 10.27 km3 in northern Nigeria ; 25.48 km3 in the Middle Belt; 23.76 km3 in the south. Dam capacity is estimated to be 44.2 km3.
“The Niger Basin Authority (NBA) was formed in 1964 and is made up of the nine countries that share the Niger Basin (Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso, Algeria, Benin, Niger, Chad, Cameroon). The principal aim of the authority is to ensure the integrated development of the basin.
While, “the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) comprises representatives of Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria. Its objective is to ensure a rational and equitable development of natural resources, including water, of the Lake Chad Region”
In 1990, Niger and Nigeria signed the Maiduguri? Agreement to establish a joint commission to monitor and review development options, in particular water resources development, in the four major sub-basins common to thmwe two countries. The Agreement is however, yet to be implemented.
Irrigation Development
The latest irrigation estimate gives a total of about 2.1 million, of which about 1.6 million are from surface water and 0.5 million from groundwater.
The “extractable water resources” are said to be sufficient for up to 0.5 million in the north of Nigeria, areas suitable for irrigation with groundwater, but this resources are yet to be tapped by the Federal Government.
Areas with surface water in Nigeria are in table above.
The government Gen. Yakubu Gowon (rtd) launched an irrigation plan in 1970s. The scheme was expected to be run either by River Basin Development Authorities (RBDAs) or by the States.
According to a FAO document, “162 dams had been constructed with a total storage capacity sufficient to irrigate 725,000 ha if developed. Many of these dams, however, were built with little or no infrastructure and the sites chosen do not always have sufficient irrigable areas close by.
“The schemes that were developed have not been brought into production fully or they have been implemented with inappropriate infrastructure. By 2004, only about 20 per cent of the area planned for public sector irrigation had been developed and only 32 per cent of the developed area was being irrigated.
“The poor utilisation of the developed irrigation area in the public irrigation sector can be attributed to a number of factors including: i) the lack of a coherent irrigation sub-sector development policy and strategy; ii) insufficient attention to management systems; iii) inadequate funding (including poor cost recovery); iv) high capital and operating costs; v) inadequate farm support services; vi) poor operation, repair and maintenance; vii) a low level of project ownership acceptance by the direct beneficiaries; and viii) uncertain financial and economic viability. Because of these lapses, a number of schemes have already deteriorated badly and are in urgent need of major renovation and repair, less than 20 years after their construction”.
A DEARTH OF WATER AND FOOD SECURITY LAWS
At present, both chambers of the National Assembly are yet to pass any substantial law on a radical transformation of the water and food security sector in Nigeria .
The most important laws available on the issues are the River Basin Development Authorities Act No. 35 of 1986 and the Environmental Impact Assessment Decree No. 86 of 1992, which focus on irrigation.
Nigeria’s total annual renewable water resources are put “at 286.2 km3. Annual internally produced resources amount to 221 cubic kilometers (km3), made up of 214 km3 surface water and 87 km3 groundwater, while 80 km3 of the latter is assumed to be overlap between surface water and groundwater.
“External water resources are estimated at 65.2 km3/year being surface water coming from Niger, Cameroon, and Benin.
Exploitable surface water resources are estimated to be 80 percent of the natural flow, which is about 96 km3/year.
Annual extractable groundwater resources are about 59.51 km3, distributed as follows: 10.27 km3 in northern Nigeria ; 25.48 km3 in the Middle Belt; 23.76 km3 in the south. Dam capacity is estimated to be 44.2 km3.
Water Use
The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has reported that the “Total annual water withdrawal in Nigeria was estimated at 8 km3 for the year 2000. Agriculture was the biggest water user with 5.5 km3, or 69 percent of the total water withdrawal, followed by the domestic sector with about 1.7 km3 (21 percent) and industry with 0.8 km3 (10 percent)”.
Though Nigeria is said to be a member of regional authorities that deal with the management of shared water resources, namely: The Niger Basin Authority (NBA) which was formed in 1964 and is made up of the nine countries that share the Niger Basin (Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso, Algeria, Benin, Niger, Chad, Cameroon), its potentials in meeting goals on water remain bleak.