ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES, ACCESS TO WATER AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN NIGERIA: The Role of Economic Policy
- Christopher O. Orubu
- ( paper pages. 1 - 47 )
Abstract
The intricate relationship between the environment and waterresources and how access to water affects quality of life have been keydevelopment issues at the global level since the turn of this century.Goal 7 of the Millennium Development Goals was meant to ensureenvironmental sustainability, with Target 7C specifically concernedwith reducing by half the proportion of the population withoutsustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by theyear 2015. While it is true that MDG7, in terms of its targets, waslargely achieved at the global level, at the individual country level,many developing countries were still far from meeting the target by2015. This explains why environmental sustainability is still a corepillar of the post-MDG development agenda, as encapsulated in Goal6 of the Universal Sustainable Development Goals. This paperexamines the link between the environment and water resources inNigeria. It profiles the country’s water resources as well as thevarious policy measures that have been adopted over the years by thevarious governments in the bid to broaden access to water forproductive and consumptive uses. The effectiveness of the variouspolicy measures was also assessed by using a sub-component of theAfrica Infrastructure Development Index within a regionalcomparative frame. The results suggested that Nigeria still lagsbehind such ECOWAS countries like Cape Verde, Gambia andSenegal in terms of access to water and sanitation services. The majorfactors militating against the development of the country’s waterresources towards the achievement of environmental sustainabilityand better quality of life for the people were identified, on the basis of which suggestions were made on the way forward. Key amongst theseare the need to encourage private participation in the water resourcessector and the adoption of the Integrated Water Resources Planningmodel as the core planning framework for sensible exploitation of thecountry’s water resources.
Citation
Christopher O. Orubu.
2020.
"ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES, ACCESS TO WATER AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN NIGERIA: The Role of Economic Policy"
The Nigerian Journal of Economic and Social Studies,
62 (1): 1 - 47.
JEL Classification
Q25, Q53, Q56, Q58
