19 Dams Can Generate 3,600 Megawatts -Perm Sec

Nineteen of the 200 dams in the country can generate 3,600 megawatts of electricity, Dr Godknows Igali, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Water Resources, has said.

Igali disclosed this at the Presidential Water Summit last Tuesday in Abuja where he also presented the ‘Roadmap for Nigeria’s Water Sector’.

He said the country could also generate additional 7,000 megawatts of electricity if more dams were built.

According to him, the 200 dams with a combined storage capacity of 34 billion cubic metres of water are capable of irrigating about 500,000 hectares of land.

“Nigeria has the potential to irrigate about 3.1 million hectares of farmland but only 150,000 hectares have been fully developed.

“Irrigation has the potential of increasing agricultural productivity by as much as ten-folds and can be enhanced by effective utilisation of dams/irrigation facility,’’ Igali added.

Commenting on the status of water and sanitation in the country, the permanent secretary said Nigeria had huge water resources estimated at 267 billion cubic metres of ground water per annum.

He put the current water supply service coverage in the country at 58 per cent, representing 87 million people, while sanitation was 32 per cent representing 54 million.

“About half of the Nigerian population, that is 70 million people, is without access to potable water supply.

“This represents six per cent of the world’s 1.1 billion population who do not have access to safe drinking water,’’ Igali said.

In terms of economic losses accruing from low access to water supply, he said Nigeria, among other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, had lost part of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to inadequate water annually.

For Africa as a whole, Igali said the continent had been losing five per cent of its GDP or 28.4 billion dollars annually to low water access.

“The figures exceed the total foreign aid and debt relief inflow into the region as a result of underdevelopment and poor management of water resources, “Igali said.

Quoting the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme(JMP) Baseline survey, the permanent secretary said that Lagos had the highest water coverage in the country with 81 per cent, followed by Kwara with 80 per cent and FCT with water coverage of 78 per cent.

He said the survey also showed that Sokoto had the lowest water coverage with 13 per cent; Zamfara, 25 per cent while Nassarawa and Bayelsa had 27 per cent each.

Igali said Kano State had the best sanitation coverage in the country with 97 per cent, Lagos 91 per cent and Jigawa 89 per cent respectively.

“Bayelsa has the worst sanitation coverage of about 12 per cent followed by Kwara with 16 per cent coverage and Ebonyi which has 27 per cent sanitation coverage,’’ he disclosed.

Igali said that the Federal Government would boost water and sanitation facilities through the development of a template for Public Private Partnership (PPP) intervention in the sector.