The federal government has ratified the UN Water Convention on the Protection and use of Trans-Border Water Courses and International Lakes. Minister of Water Resources Suleiman Adamu informed journalists after a FEC meeting. 

Vice President Yemi Osinabjo presided over the meeting on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

“This is a UN Convention, and it is called the Water Convention.

“Countries are required to accede to this convention and to also get it ratified by (the) government. So, (the) council ratified this convention today. The convention has a lot of benefits for Nigeria because of our numerous transboundary waters. We need to strengthen cooperation with members with who we share the same basin,” stated the minister.

Mr Adamu added, “In addition to the fact that we are members of the Niger Basin Authority and the Benue River Commission, joining the international convention will give us better recognition, and we will have a better bargaining power for lots of issues that have to do with transboundary waters.’’

He added that the ratification also rhymed with Nigeria’s efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, specifically Goal 6.5 with the need to consolidate existing cooperation with neighbouring countries and the issues of groundwater and transboundary waters.

The minister also explained that transboundary waters might be groundwater and surface water.

“We are the third country within the Niger Basin Authority to accede after Chad and Cameroon. We hope that subsequently, other countries will also join this convention. It is an international convention, and we are putting our footprints there,” he noted. “The process took about a year; we have gone through many zonal workshops, national workshops and road shows, and it has got the buy-in of all stakeholders.”

The attorney general of the federation is expected to prepare the instrument of ratification.

The UN General Assembly in 1997 voted for the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses – an overarching global framework governing the rights and duties of States sharing freshwater systems.

There are 263 internationally shared watersheds, which drain the territories of 145 countries and represent more than 40 per cent of the earth’s land surface.

Hence, inter-state cooperation towards the sustainable management of transboundary water supplies, in accordance with applicable international legal instruments, is a topic of crucial importance, especially in the context of the current global water crisis.

(NAN)