By Terhemen Oraduen
Tomorrow marks exactly two years since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, took the oath of office as the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Coming at a critical moment when the nation was in dire need of purposeful, focused and quality leadership capable of giving hope to Nigerians and addressing the burning challenges facing the nation, President Tinubu’s ascension to the presidency came with much expectations from citizens.
Fully conscious of the enormity of the responsibilities of his government, President Tinubu immediately hit the ground running, carefully assembling a crack team of technocrats and experts with the capacity to help him effectively drive his Renewed Hope Agenda and provide Nigerians with much desired relief and better standard of living.
One of such personalities is Engineer Professor Joseph Terlumun Utsev, a Professor of Water Resources Engineering, Fellow of the Nigeria Society of Engineers, and Fellow, Nigeria Society of Water Engineers, with a meritorious service record and outstanding scorecard in previous assignments, to oversee the affairs of the Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation.
Two years down the line, the Tinubu Administration has, in the water and sanitation sector, demonstrated proactive leadership, evident in the massive number of water and sanitation projects that have either been completed or are on-going across the country, thus proving the unwavering commitment of the administration to making governance more meaningful for all citizens.
In its efforts to revolutionise the water and sanitation sector, the Administration, with Professor Utsev as the lead arrowhead of projects design and implementation, has constructed over one thousand, five hundred water schemes across the country which are now being used by millions of Nigerians, while several dam projects have also been completed, commissioned and put to use for irrigation farming.
Some of these dams are the Rafin Yashin Multipurpose Dam in Niger State, Odo Ape Dam in Kogi State and Amla Dam in Otukpo Benue State.
Similarly, under the Public-Private Partnership Arrangement, a Hydropower Plant and one Cargo Agro-allied Airport at Kashimbila, Taraba State, were concessioned, while the over seven billion naira generated as commencement fee for the five years arrangement was remitted into the Special Concession Account of the Federal Government as revenue.
To ensure all-year-round agriculture, several irrigation projects have been completed and are being used to scale up irrigation farming as a strategy to increase food production.
Examples are the Bakolori Irrigation Project in Zamfara State, the Micro Irrigation Project at Igogidigidi in Ipapo, Oyo State, and the Dadin Kowa Irrigation Project in Gombe State, among several others.
Recently, Professor Utsev was in Yobe State where he commissioned and handed over to the State Government the Gashua Water Supply Scheme with the capacity of supplying three million, two hundred litres of water per day, serving over one million residents of Gashua and its environs.
To address the lingering water scarcity at the NYSC Orientation Camp in Kubwa Abuja, Professor Utsev has executed a water project there which currently serves both the Corps members and some other residents of the host community.
The Minister also commissioned the Birnin Kudu Water Project in Jigawa State designed to supply water to over five hundred households in Birnin Kudu and its environs.
In addition, fourteen dam projects, including the Adada Dam in Enugu State, Ogbese Dam in Ekiti, Mangu Dam in Plateau, among others, are at advanced stages of completion, while the reconstruction and upgrading of the Alau Dam in Borno State has been flagged off .
Also, study and design work for Datsin-Hausa Buffer Dam in Adamawa State, which is intended to control excess water often released from the Lagdo Dam into Nigeria, has been completed and work will soon commence on it.
Similarly, one hundred and thirteen contracts have been awarded for the construction of various water schemes across the country while work is progressing steadily on the Greater Dutse Water Project in Jigawa State, Ugbema-Ameladu-Gboko Water Project in Benue State.
It is also worth mentioning that over one hundred and fifty thousand hectares of land have been developed at the River Basin Development Authorities across the country to scale up irrigation farming which has also created over one point six million jobs for farmers in the communities where the developed lands are located.
In the area of sanitation, the “Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet” campaign has recorded success with additional forty local governments attaining the Open Defecation Free status and bringing the total number of local governments that have attained this status to one hundred and forty two, while sustained campaign is on-going to ensure that Nigeria achieved total Open Defecation Free status by the year two thousand and thirty.
The Water Resources and Sanitation Ministry is also, in collaboration with the World Bank, embarking on the Sustainable Power and Irrigation Project for Nigeria, SPIN, aimed at rehabilitating and modernising dams and irrigation projects in the country to further boost food production.
Aside projects execution, Professor Utsev has shown passionate commitment to strengthening collaborations with development partners such as the World Bank and UNICEF; bilateral relations with many countries, states and local governments as well as his colleague ministers in line ministries such as the Ministers of Agriculture and Food Security, Environment, Budget, Power and Blue Economy, as part of deliberate efforts to achieve the food security agenda of the President Tinubu Administration and increase access to safe potable water for every Nigerian.
These initiatives have significantly increased access to clean and safe water, and improved sanitation services among communities across the country with costs of food items steadily on the decline due to the massive irrigation farming going on simultaneously across the twelve River Basins.
With every sense of modesty, the massive transformation the country is witnessing in the water and sanitation sector under the pragmatic and purposeful leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Minister, Engineer Professor Joseph Terlumun Utsev in the last two years deserves accolade from all well-meaning citizens and stakeholders who should not relent in their support and prayers for the Administration to even do more for the well-being of all.
Terhemen Oraduen, Personal Assistant on Media and Publicity to the Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, writes from Abuja.
