Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Prof. Joseph Utsev, yesterday reiterated the Federal Government’s commitment towards permanently addressing the country’s prevailing socio-economic challenges.
Addressing a “South-South Regional Workshop on Establishment and Strengthening of Water Users’ Associations (WUAs) in Public Irrigation Schemes in Nigeria,” held at Warbridge Hotel, Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, the minister stressed the importance of water as it relates to humanity and agriculture, assuring that the central government was assiduously striving towards fixing the food challenge in the country.
The minister, who was represented by the permanent secretary, Mr Richard Pheelangwah, said: “As you may be aware, the present administration under the able leadership of His Excellency, President Bola Tinubu, declared a state of emergency on food security, as an indication of his commitment to increase food production and economic growth through irrigated agriculture.
“Similarly, the FG has shown strong resilience to massively invest in the irrigation sub-sector to secure food and water in Nigeria by re-intensifying efforts towards advancing from drought-prone, rain-fed agriculture to irrigated agriculture for self-sufficiency.
“I feel highly delighted to inform you that the federal ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation, as part of her commitments, has identified the Irrigation sub-sector as one of her key policy thrusts to align with the FG’s efforts in lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty by the year 2030.
“This, amongst others, is an indication that we cannot over-emphasise the need for national food security and the importance of irrigation for socio-economic development and poverty reduction.
Describing the forum tagged: “Revitalising Irrigation and Drainage Management through the Establishment of Well-Structured Water Users’ Associations in Public Irrigation and Drainage Schemes for Enhancing Sustainable Food Security and Economic Growth” as timely and appropriate, the minister explained that “it will go a long way towards strengthening the ministry’s on-going reform initiatives to promote synergy between farmers and governments at all levels.”
He disclosed that “the laudable reforms is the collaborative effort between the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation and the World Bank in carrying out the Transforming Irrigation Management in Nigeria (TRIMING).”
He explained that “this is a project’s intervention selected irrigation schemes in the country to address rural poverty through progressive management transfer to regulated bodies in the form of Water Users Associations (WUAs) as models for other schemes.”
“Also, the ministry is collaborating with the World Bank to promote the development of WUAs through the proposed Sustainable Power and Irrigation for Nigeria (SPIN) Project. The project intends to foster a collaborative working relationship between the federal, state, River Basin Development Authorities (RBDAs) and WUAs to ensure the sustainability of public irrigation schemes,” he stressed.
Governor Umo Eno, who was represented by his Deputy, Senator Akon Eyakenyi, pledged Akwa Ibom State’s readiness to be part of the scheme, considering the important role water plays in sustainable human and agricultural developments, explaining that the current administration in the State, has agriculture as one of her cardinal food sufficiency objectives in the ‘ARISE Agenda’ blueprint.
The commitment to addressing the food challenge in the state, he explained, was the major reason the government declared two days (first and last Friday) of every month for workers to absent themselves from duty and take to small scale farming in their domains.
Declaring the workshop open, the governor charged the conferees with developing implementable strategies in their communique towards addressing identifiable lapses that negatively impinge on sustainable agricultural development by working with the water sector stakeholders.
