By Aideloje Ojo
Minna
The Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Professor Joseph Terlumun Utsev has promised to ensure sustainable implementation of all the validated Strategic Catchment Management Plans (SCMPs) produced by ACReSAL project.
The Minister stated this while validating the Yedsaram and Misai – Komadugu – Gana Strategic Catchment Management Plans at the ACRESAL Hybrid Implementation Support Mission in Minna.
According to him ” these are not just technical documents, they are the very compass for action of the ACReSAL project. They are the vehicle through which we achieve watershed management and they form the strategic backbone for landscape- scale resilience in the semi – arid North”.
He explained that the Agro- Climatic Resilience in Semi Arid Landscapes (ACRESAL) has been mandated to produce 20 Strategic Catchment Management Plans for the country adding that, ” Seven SCMPs have earlier be validated while two are now validated in Minna Niger state. This brings the total to Nine so far out of the 20 SCMPs for the country “.
Represented by the Executive Director, Nigeria Integrated Water Resources Management Commission (NIWRMC) Mrs Sakinatu Jimade, the Minister explained that in a country as ecologically diverse and hydrologically stressed as Nigeria, uncoordinated interventions have long undermined our ability to manage land and water resources sustainably
” The SCMPs are the mitigation and corrective response. They enable us to plan not in isolation but with a clear understanding of the interactions of all the watershed components including the upstream, midstream and downstream dynamics “.
In a remark, the National Coordinator of AcreSAL, Abdulhamid Umar explained that the Federal Government has already constituted a committee to implement the Strategic Catchment Management Plans, assuring that the documents will not end in the shelves.
He said that the SCMPs are very key to the development of the nation adding that other development partners could use them for the success of their projects in the country.
