Minister harps on homegrown technologies as panacea to waste water

The Minister of Water Resources, Engr. Suleiman Adamu

By. Mohammed Usman

The Minister of Water Resources, Engr. Suleiman H. Adamu, has called on African Ministers attending the 2017 World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden to think globally and act locally in finding solutions to issues of waste water.
In a statement signed by the water ministry’s director of press and public relations, Mrs. Margaret E. Umoh, the minister represented by the Director of Water Supply of the ministry, Engr. Benson Ajisegeri at the Africa Focus session for the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW), said that Africa should think out of the box and invest more on science to develop home-grown technologies. “We can achieve an African approach to solving issues of waste water if we think globally and act locally,” he said.
He said that AMCOW’s mandate in the water sector is to provide political leadership, policy direction and advocacy in the provision, use and management of water resources for sustainable socio-economic development and maintenance of African ecosystem.
He called on other member countries of AMCOW to strengthen their roles for stakeholder engagement and participation in order to address the issues of waste water.
The Minister of Water Resources of Egypt, Mohammed Abdel Atty said that AMCOW should facilitate and advocate adequate and sustainable financing of programs that will lead to achieving the African vision 2025, the agenda 2063 of; “The Africa we want”, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and other high level commitments.
The Africa Focus session had presentations by AMCOW and other critical partners on innovative ways of improving water quality through waste water management in Africa.
At a session on irrigation farming in Africa, African leaders were told to encourage their smallholder irrigation to double their yields with half the water presently used.
Also, they were told that the inclusion and sustenance of smallholder irrigation in Africa is key to meeting the global challenges of food security.

from peoples daily