National Water Supply and Sanitation Policy of Nigeria
FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA
FEDERAL MINISTRY OF WATER RESOURCES
NATIONAL WATER SUPPLY AND
SANITATION POLICY
Department of Water
Supply and Quality Control
FIRST EDITION - JANUARY, 2000
NATIONAL WATER SUPPLY POLICY
FIRST EDITION -JANUARY, 2000
1.
2.
INTRODUCTION:
General:
Water, next to air, is the most important need of man. In spite of the considerable investment of
Governments in Nigeria over the years in this essential human requirement, a large population still does not have access to water in adequate quantity and quality. It is estimated that only 48% of the inhabitants of the urban and semi-urban areas of Nigeria and 39% of rural areas have access to potable water supply. In spite of these low figures the average delivery to the urban population is only 32 litres per capita per day (lpcd) and that for rural areas is 10 lpcd. The quality in most cases is suspect. Various reasons responsible for this situation include amongst others, poor planning, inadequate funding, insufficient relevant manpower, haphazard implementation, and above all the lack of a national policy for water supply.
Historical Perspective
Public Water Supply started in Nigeria early this century in a few towns under the management of the lowest administrative level. Amongst the early beneficiaries of these facilities were Lagos, Calabar, Kano,
Ibadan, Abeokuta, Ijebu Ode and Enugu. The schemes were maintained with revenue from water rate collection with virtually no operational subvention from government. With the creation of Regional
Governments in the early 1950s the water supply undertakings continued to maintain the schemes but the financial and technical responsibilities for developing new water schemes were taken over by the Regional
Governments who also assigned 'supervisory high level manpower (Water Engineers and Superintendents) to the water supply undertakings. For the period of the assignment, all the allowances and part of the
FEDERAL MINISTRY OF WATER RESOURCES
NATIONAL WATER SUPPLY AND
SANITATION POLICY
Department of Water
Supply and Quality Control
FIRST EDITION - JANUARY, 2000
NATIONAL WATER SUPPLY POLICY
FIRST EDITION -JANUARY, 2000
1.
2.
INTRODUCTION:
General:
Water, next to air, is the most important need of man. In spite of the considerable investment of
Governments in Nigeria over the years in this essential human requirement, a large population still does not have access to water in adequate quantity and quality. It is estimated that only 48% of the inhabitants of the urban and semi-urban areas of Nigeria and 39% of rural areas have access to potable water supply. In spite of these low figures the average delivery to the urban population is only 32 litres per capita per day (lpcd) and that for rural areas is 10 lpcd. The quality in most cases is suspect. Various reasons responsible for this situation include amongst others, poor planning, inadequate funding, insufficient relevant manpower, haphazard implementation, and above all the lack of a national policy for water supply.
Historical Perspective
Public Water Supply started in Nigeria early this century in a few towns under the management of the lowest administrative level. Amongst the early beneficiaries of these facilities were Lagos, Calabar, Kano,
Ibadan, Abeokuta, Ijebu Ode and Enugu. The schemes were maintained with revenue from water rate collection with virtually no operational subvention from government. With the creation of Regional
Governments in the early 1950s the water supply undertakings continued to maintain the schemes but the financial and technical responsibilities for developing new water schemes were taken over by the Regional
Governments who also assigned 'supervisory high level manpower (Water Engineers and Superintendents) to the water supply undertakings. For the period of the assignment, all the allowances and part of the