Best-performing River Basin MD To Get Minister’s Award

The best-performing managing director in the 12 river basin development authorities is to get an award of excellence from the minister of water resources and sanitation, Prof Joseph Utsev.

The minister who disclosed this yesterday during a chat with journalists in Abuja said he had toured the river basin development authorities to assess their viability and areas that need improvement.

Prof Utsev said he had also visited 16 state governors since he assumed office in August to seek their collaboration to boost food production and enhance sanitation.

The minister promised to visit the remaining governors next year and urged them, traditional rulers and other stakeholders to key into the federal government’s irrigation-farming drive and the “Clean Nigeria, Use a Toilet” campaign being championed by the ministry.

Utsev maintained that the ministry was doing everything within its powers to promote environmental sustainability, job creation and economic growth in line with the president’s Renewed Hope Agenda.

He disclosed that a monitoring and evaluation framework had been set up to assist in achieving set goals.

The minister lamented the unwillingness of citizens to use toilets even where they are available and called for a change of attitude to eradicate open defecation in the country.

The river basin authorities in the country are Anambra-Imo, Niger Delta, Benin-Owena, Ogun-Osun, Chad, Hadejia-Jama’are, Cross River, Lower Benue, Lower Niger, Upper Niger, Sokoto-Rima and Upper Benue.