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Following President Muhammadu Buhari’s plan to cut government spending through a proposed lean cabinet, experts in the field of water and development initiatives have called on him to spare the Ministry of Water Resources.
The National President, Association of Water Well Drilling, Rig Owners and Practitioners (AWDROP), Michael Ale in company of other experts in the association stated that rather than scrap the ministry, Buhari and his team, should prioritise water ministry and allow it to stay as an entity.
Ale, a water engineer and global renowned development practitioner stressed the need for the government to jettison politics in handling those to man water ministry, saying: “President Buhari should write his name in gold as first President who appoints a technocrat with requisite educational background and expertise to handle water ministry to solve myriads of problems confronting the sector and safe Nigerians from water-related health hazards.”
He regretted that throughout the last electioneering campaigns, how to tackle water problems was never raised, a development, he said, was giving AWDROP sleepless nights.
To this end, he called on the government to standardise water industry in the country, stressing that doing so would go a long way in checkmating quackery and health hazards and other illegal activities in the sector.
Ale appealed to governments at all levels to patronise local water practitioners arguing that patronising Indian and Russian drillers was inimical to the economic growth of the country.
He disclosed that the low patronage of local drillers was affecting his members; many of who are already out of the job “whereas these people are more qualified than foreigners being given the jobs”.
“Many of our members are out of job and I believe this administration will address this problem.I have confidence that all these obstacles will be addressed in due course” he added.