The connections between water and energy and their impacts on the lives of people across the world have held the attention on the resources and uses. Many countries have realized that without water and energy, prosperity and successes they target are impossible.
For Nigeria, focus on energy and water is critical to the attainment of the economic and social prosperity that Nigerians desire. Water is very essential to human survival. Energy, some of which could be generated from water, is crucial for sustainable industrial, commercial and social engagements.
Nigeria’s situation is worse: we do not have drinking water.
The 6,650-km Nile, the longest river in the world, serves over 450 million people with more than 200 million of them depending directly on it for their food and water security. Agreements on the uses of the Nile date back to 1902.
Our local communities are at war over dwindling water resources. The larger national picture is of urban areas with drinking water from unsafe sources and epileptic energy supplies. The hazards from such living, which is worse in rural Nigeria, are too ominous to be ignored.
Lamentations about the poor state of our energy and water infrastructure should stop. We need to act, and quickly too. Government budgets for the sectors are so low that it is obvious they are not meant to solve the problems.
