Water resources minister Suleiman Adamu said the federal government had constructed 260 dams impounding 34 billion cubic meters of water across the country.

Addressing participants at the 29th regular meeting of the National Council on Water Resources (NCWR) on Thursday in Sokoto, Mr Adamu said the figure represented the total number of large and medium dams constructed by the federal government.

The minister said the dams’ construction was part of the government’s efforts toward harnessing surface and ground water for drinking, irrigation and power generation.

According to him, Nigeria has about 333 billion cubic meters of surface water and about 156 billion cubic meters of groundwater, which could be harnessed to meet the current nation’s water supply demand.

“My ministry is promoting Integrated Water Resources Management principles for sustainable management of the available water resource in the country,’’ he said.

Mr Adamu added that to sustain the gains in water supply, there was the need for effective collaboration amongst stakeholders in the sector.

“Doing so, will holistically harness the rich potential and maximise the benefits of capital investment in the completed dams, water supply and irrigation infrastructure,’’ he said.

He further said the ministry was undertaking projects and programmes to improve urban, small town and rural water supply.

The minister, however, said already, the ministry had constructed 6,761 water supply schemes in the urban, semi-urban and rural areas to meet the needs of about 32 million Nigerians.

(NAN)