BY Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai.
Not many Nigerians may know Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and
fewer still would have any reason to. Born in 1772, he was an English poet who lived
long before any notion of Nigerian nationhood was forged, but his most famous
work, ‘The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner’ which was written in 1798, aptly
describes the Nigerian situation: ‘Water, Water Everywhere, Not a Drop to
Drink’.
Through a press release on the 28th March last year, Sarah
Ochekpe, the Minister of Water Resources said that the country would require
some $2.5bn (about N396bn) to provide potable water for 75% of Nigerians. It is
2013, barely 2 years to the Millennium Development Goals target of providing
water to the 75% of the populace and official release from the ministry puts
the percentage of Nigerians with access to safe drinking water at only 32%.
If this picture is not bad enough, at a briefing in Abuja
just before the Presidential Summit on Water, the Minister confirmed that
Nigeria will not meet the MDG goal on adequate water supply by 2015 if the
country is not willing to commit an annual budget of some N360bn for the next 3
to 5 years.
Consider the impact of the nation’s water situation on our
health indices and you would see where exactly this government is taking
Nigeria. The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that about 361,900
people die yearly due to poor water and sanitation conditions in Nigeria, while
the UNICEF estimates that 194,000 children under the age of five die from
diarrhea yearly. Gruesome as they may be, these figures are the direct impact
of federal, states’ and local governments’ continued neglect of this all
important sector, and the Jonathan administration shows no signs of providing
leadership that will turn the tide.
In light of these figures and the very little success that
has been achieved in water provision, this column would today examine the
federal budgetary provision for the water resources ministry with a view to
addressing very pertinent questions like how much of the ministry’s N30.4bn
2012 capital budget was implemented? How much of Nigeria’s 267 and 92 billion
cubic meters of surface and ground water respectively are currently targeted
for the use of Nigerians? What were the gains of the much talked about
Presidential Summit on Water? Has any progress been made in implementing the
Water Road Map? What should the National Assembly be doing in this vital area
of our national well-being?
In 2012, the ministry’s total allocation was N39bn or 0.82%
of the Federal budget. N8.6bn (22%) was set aside for recurrent spending while
N30.4bn (78%) was voted to capital expenditure. This sectoral ratio exceeds the
70% we have always advocated as the minimum for capital expenditure. The 2013
budget reveals an even better picture; the total allocation is N47.8bn
consisting of a capital allocation of N39.8bn (83%) and a recurrent expenditure
provision of N7.9bn (17%).
In an administration where costs seem to continuously
escalate, the Ministry of Water Resources deserves some commendation as it is
one of the few ministries with a reduction in its recurrent budget. The
personnel cost for 2013 of N6.4bn is a reduction of about 6.2% from its 2012 N6.8bn
figure. According to 2013 Capital Expenditure plans, some N17.9bn would be used
to complete various irrigation projects across the country: 24 projects in
North Central Nigeria, 21 projects would be completed in the North West, 18 in
the South South, 11 in the South East, 9 in the North East and 7 in South
Western Nigeria.
However, examining the figures closely, one notices that
there is a 2013 provision of about N122.7m to complete the Zobe Dam in Katsina;
there was a similar provision of the same figure allocated to the same project
in the 2012 budget. Simply put, budgeting (and spending?) on this project in
2012 and 2013 would add up to N245.4 million. Incidentally, this same project
was awarded at some N52m and was brought to about 80% completion by the Shagari
administration by December 1983!
In February this year, the President announced the intention
to host an overdue Water Summit with the theme ‘Innovative Funding of the Water
Sector in Nigeria’. Unfortunately, Mr. President himself could not make out
time to attend this all important summit; he was however represented by the
much ‘freer’ Vice President Namadi Sambo. The highpoint of the occasion was the
Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Federal Ministry of Water
Resources and the Bank of Industry which would enable private investors in the
water sector access loans with very low interest rates. This is an interesting
development, and it is hoped that the MoU will be developed further to provide
another source of funding the implementation of the water road map which
President Jonathan launched with much fanfare in 2011..
The water road map has as its main objectives a 75% water
coverage by the year 2015 which would increase to 90% in 2020. This might lead
discerning Nigerians to question, if between 2011 and 2013, we have not recorded
an increase of even ten percentage points of coverage, what hopes do we have of
achieving moving from our dismal 32% coverage within the next 2 years?
A more realistic forecast must be made. According to the
Water Sanitation And Hygiene (W.A.S.H) 2013 report, at our current rate of
progress, the water target of 75% coverage will be achieved in 2033, 18 years
after MDG target of 2015.
When the decay in the nation’s water infrastructure is
considered, neither the executive branch nor the federal government cannot be
wholly blamed for this massive failure. The states’ and local governments bear
most of the responsibility for the failure to ensure reticulation of potable
water in our urban and suburban areas.
The legislative arms of the states and federal government must be held
responsible for part of the failure.
The national and states’ assemblies have a substantial say
in appropriation decisions, so must be held responsible for any under-funding
of the water sector at federal and states’ levels respectively. The
legislatures’ law-making powers have not been diligently discharged as well.
For instance, the bill for the establishment of a National Dam Commission has
since been presented to the National Assembly. This bill which would establish
a commission whose sole responsibility is maintaining and upgrading dam
infrastructure is worth revisiting, revising if need be, and passing into law.
It is obvious that if a bill like this is passed and the commission set up, the
pitiable state of Nigeria’s oldest dam, the Kainji dam would probably be
reversed.
In spite of our combined 359 billion cubic meters, our
inland water systems of about thirteen lakes and reservoirs both of which have
a surface area of between 4,000 and 550,000 hectares, Nigeria is still
classified as a ‘water short’ country. From all indications this government
neither has the vision, nor the political will to bring Nigeria out of its
present crisis. Thus, the sad reality is that more Nigerians may die from water
related illnesses, while the ministry continues with its current budgeting
practices. For most Nigerians, the words
of Coleridge, ‘water, water everywhere not a drop to drink’ rings true today,
as when it did when it was first written over 200 hundred years ago.
