By Meletus EZE
The Federal Government has presented ‘’Water Use Licenses Certificate’’ to two water companies namely NESTLE water and Winners Power Garden water companies for official extraction of water resources for their operations.
Alhaji Suleiman Adamu, the Minister of Water Resources, made the presentation on behalf of the Federal Government on Thursday in Abuja.
The presentation ceremony was organised by the Nigeria Integrated Water Resources Management Commission (NIWRMC), the commission mandated for the issuance of licenses and the regulation of water resources in Nigeria.
Adamu used the occasion to appreciate the commission for its efforts in ensuring that various water users were encouraged to obtain water use licenses.
The licensing initiative, the minister said was geared toward minimising to the large extent, the incessant abstraction, diversion and damming of the resources in the country.
‘’As the nation’s population continues to grow and socio-economic activities increase, water demand for domestic, agriculture, industry and other uses will continue to spiral upwards.
‘’It is therefore important to apportion the right amount of water for these various uses to ensure equitable distribution of these finite resources across the country, ‘’ the minister said.
The minister said that licensing of various water users was necessary and important to the nation at a time like this when the government was up-scaling revenue generation and job creation among others.
Mr Reuben Habu, the Executive Director of NIWRMC said that the paradigm shift in approach was to develop the nation’s water resources from the traditional method to the global best practice.
Habu said that the practice required appropriate legal and institution framework and polices put in place to drive the process.
‘’Regulation of water resources seeks to promote the availability of sufficient water quantitatively and qualitatively and in both temporal and spatial context for all uses and users, ‘’ he said.
Mr Ayodele Ayeokere, the Factory Manager, NESTLE Water, appreciated the Federal Government and NIWRMC for the great honour done to both companies by providing them official permit to use water for their operations.
‘’I want to thank you for this great honour to ensure that we obtain the water use license today, we will make sure that we use water responsibly and also keep to the laws of the land.
‘’We also promise that the products we are given to the society is of the right quality, ‘’ he said.====NAN
