Key Challenges for Transboundary Groundwater Resources Management in Nigeria: How IWRM Address Them

Nigeria is abundantly blessed with surface and groundwater resources and is divided into eight hydrological areas drained mainly by the Rivers Niger and Benue, Chad River Basin System, and their numerous minor tributaries, which are separated by a watershed. Abstraction of Nigeria’s water resources and its management is of paramount issue at the three tiers of government which share responsibility for water resources management because of technical and institutional factors which determine not only the flow and distribution of surface and underground water resources, but the interaction between them, coupled with lack of co-operation in Public-Private Sector Participation (PPSP). Thus, this leads to fragmentation, duplication and lack of inter-sectoral coordination with each segment pursuing its own independent water agenda because the salient features of water resources management in Nigeria include: weak data base, fragmented responsibility and weak institutional framework among others. This paper shows that Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) principles are needed to ensure adequate management of Nigeria’s water resources and to guide the regulations of the water authorities (Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Rural Development, State Water Corporation Boards, National Water Resources Institute (NWRI), Kaduna, and the River Basin Development Authorities in Nigeria’s six geo-political zones) with the goals of the water policies centered on availability of quality water  for sundry purposes, ranging from domestic uses to industrial and agricultural uses. It also points out that IWRM needs to address the current state of water resources development in Nigeria by ensuring a national water policy which should be in line with the Integrated Water Resources Management’s international and trans-boundary water policies, and should have adequate institutional framework for managing the resources, with the Federal Government ensuring that the National Water Resources Institute (NWRI) intensify the programmes for training skilled manpower in the field of water resources management.