United Nations Industrial Development Organization, UNIDO, is
partnering with Heineken International B.V, a global beverage company,
to protect water resources while reducing carbon dioxide emissions in
the country. SYLVA EMEKA-OKEREKE reports.
Just last week, stakeholders from the private and public sectors of the nation’s economy, especially from the environment and water resources converged in Lagos state, to deliberate on best global initiatives, aimed at reducing cumulative water stress in Nigeria.
The one-day intellectual engagement afforded the participants, the opportunity to deliberate on water situation in Nigeria as well as other African countries.
Tagged, ‘’Water Stewardship in Nigeria’’, the participants x-rayed the significance of water resources in human lives, noting that humans and wildlife like plants and animals depend on freshwater to survive.
According to UNIDO Country Representative and Regional Director for Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, Mr David Tommy, the water initiatives are centred on countries and regions classified as Water Scarce, saying the international agency would support Heineken International B.V. to implement such projects in the country.
He said that the organisation will directly support Heineken in the delivery of its commitment to reduce water consumption to 3.3 hectolitres of water per hectolitres of product in breweries located in the region, adding that the activities will initially focus on Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Mexico and Tunisia. Tommy explained that a specialized methodology has been uniquely developed to identify and generate key water issues in regions, stressing that such project has been applied in Ethiopia.
He said: “In Nigeria, the Heineken operating company, Nigerian Breweries Plc, which manages several production units across the country will work with UNIDO, the Government of Nigeria and other stakeholders to identify and overcome cumulative stress on finite water resources, shared by multiple stakeholders in selected catchment areas through collaborative efforts’’.
According to him, these efforts would create awareness among the stakeholders on water stress and its root causes within relevant catchment areas, identifying water risks, mobilizing additional resources to upscale water balancing efforts, so that the overall water stress could be reduced through collaborative efforts.
This is in addition to implementing targeted water balance projects in an inclusive, participatory and phased approach for overall water stress reduction.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Environment, Mr Bukar Hassan said there is less water to go round than ever before, saying “what is left is getting dirtier as we fail to protect our rivers, lakes and streams.
Considering the fact that human and wildlife depend on freshwater, he said the global water crisis is important to everybody, including the private and public sectors of the economy.
He explained that water stewardship was about business enterprises, understanding the risks they face from water scarcity and pollution while taking action to ensure that water is managed sustainably as a shared, public resource.
Hassan pointed out that this surpassed being efficient water user, saying it is about the private sector collaborating with governments, Non-governmental Organizations, communities and others to protect shared freshwater resources.
‘’The development of public-private partnership for water stewardship programmes aims at overcoming cumulative stress on finite water resources shared by multiple stakeholders in selected catchment areas through collaborative action’’, he stated.
According to him, the project would protect water resources; reduce carbon monoxide emissions, sourcing sustainability, advocating responsible consumption, hand safety of its people and growing with communities. “It is heart-warming to note Nigeria is one of the countries, where the initial phase of water stewardship programme will be rolled out.
Other countries include Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Mexico. It is also noteworthy that one critical question to be answered at this stakeholder workshop would focus on what we have to do to guarantee water supply for people and businesses in operating catchment areas of the Nigerian Breweries in a socially, environmentally and economically sustainable way’’
In his remarks, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Breweries, Mr Nicholas Vervelde said the company’s sustainable strategy, tagged ‘Brewery a Better World’, centred on protecting water resources, reduce carbon emission, responsible consumption while ensuring health and safety of communities.
He said that the essence of the initiative was to ensure that stakeholders bring their experiences and view points to bear in a balanced way, adding that it will also ensure a common supported by all stakeholders on the most important water issues on collective efforts required to enhance water security. ‘’We are all users of water in our daily lives and there is a true saying that ‘’water is life’’. I hope this workshop brings a better of how we can optimally use this important resource to minimize wastage’’, he added.
According to a recent World Bank study on African water resources, two-third of sub-Saharan Africa’s rural population and one-quarter of urban dwellers currently lack access to potable water while millions of Africans die each year from water-borne and water-related diseases.
Assistant Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Protection, UNEP, Mr Jorge Illueca said, “Water is unevenly distributed by nature and unevenly allocated by humans, saying poor spend too much of limited income, calories and time to get inadequate amounts of water are most at risk from the lack of water availability.
Another problem is that sub-Saharan Africa, a large portion of which is semi-arid, has “too little water or too much, in the wrong place or at the wrong time, and often of poor quality,” according to the World Bank. Precipitation is highly variable and unpredictable across much of sub-Saharan Africa, and run-off the water which is removed from the soil over the surface or through drains beneath the surface is exceptionally low. Drought is endemic, often lasting from one to five years.
It said, out of 250 million people, half of sub-Saharan Africa’s population have no access to safe drinking water, and almost 300 million lack adequate sanitation, stressing that if the current situation does not improve, an estimated 500 million Africans are likely to be without safe water and sanitation by the year 2020, given the rate of population growth.
‘’Dwindling water supplies of lower quality, and at ever-higher costs, also will constrain food production and increase environmental degradation and may possibly’’, it added. Some countries Mali, Ethiopia, Uganda and Mozambique and the Zambezi River Basin have been selected as the initial focus for collaboration on improving the availability and management of the continent’s water resources within the framework of the UN System-wide Special Initiative on Africa.
The availability of water has emerged as a critical issue in Africa’s development in part because providing households with secure sources of water and making water available for rained and irrigated agriculture are seen as key elements in any strategy for poverty reduction.
For these reasons, the goal of the Special Initiative’s water component with the World Bank and the UN Environment Programme, UNEP, as the lead agencies is to ensure reasonable access to and a fair share of water at affordable prices for the poor majority throughout the continent. This “fair share” approach calls for balanced use of water across different sectors and needs, in national economic development plans and between countries using shared water resources.
The Special Initiative, launched by the UN in 1996, is a programme of concrete actions to accelerate African development over the coming decade by boosting access to basic education, health, and water, improving governance and increasing food security.
It aims at achieving greater cooperation among the agencies and organizations of the UN family, including the Bretton Woods institutions, in support of Africa’s development priorities. Agriculture already accounts for more than 80 per cent of water consumption in sub-Saharan Africa. But less than a third of Africa’s irrigation potential is exploited.
The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that in 1990, only 2 per cent of sub- Saharan Africa’s arable land was irrigated. With an annual rate of population growth at nearly 3 per cent, crop yields must be increased significantly if countries are to advance towards food self-sufficiency.
This means production must be expanded through better water harvesting, water and soil conservation, improved technology and farming practices, and increasing areas under irrigation. But only 4 per cent of the approximately 4 trillion cubic metres of renewable water available is currently being used, due to lack of appropriate infrastructure and technical and financial means.
In addition to its development benefits, efficient water management is becoming an ever more urgent environmental concern in a continent undergoing rapid growth in urbanization and industrialization, as well as population. These trends have worsened contamination of freshwater from domestic and industrial waste as well as agrochemicals.
In Africa, this problem is compounded by the low level of government spending on water supply and sanitation usually less than 1 per cent of the national budget along with poor operation and maintenance of water and sanitation infrastructure. The crisis extends beyond national borders as well.
All countries in sub-Saharan Africa share one or more river basins, with at least 54 rivers or water bodies that cross or form international boundaries. But few are effectively managed in a joint manner. Better cooperation and greater investment in shared water basins is needed, but so too is water policy reform at the national level.
The first step in the process, say the experts, is to acknowledge water as a scarce resource and its centrality to poverty reduction, economic growth, food security and environmental protection. The Special Initiative on Africa is working to achieve UN system collaboration in support of the goal of equitable access to and sustainable use of the continent’s water resources.
A UN inter-agency Informal Working Group on Water was formed in April 1996, cochaired by UNEP and the World Bank, to decide on practical steps to meet the four objectives of the Special Initiative’s water cluster. The working group agreed to designate the initial four target countries of Mali, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Uganda, and the Zambezi River Basin based on their geographical representatives and on evidence of government commitment to integrated water resources management.
The group also agreed that among the target countries, the broad goals of cooperation are to include capacity-building, improvement of information capacity, identification of investment requirements and stimulation of sector investment.
Just last week, stakeholders from the private and public sectors of the nation’s economy, especially from the environment and water resources converged in Lagos state, to deliberate on best global initiatives, aimed at reducing cumulative water stress in Nigeria.
The one-day intellectual engagement afforded the participants, the opportunity to deliberate on water situation in Nigeria as well as other African countries.
Tagged, ‘’Water Stewardship in Nigeria’’, the participants x-rayed the significance of water resources in human lives, noting that humans and wildlife like plants and animals depend on freshwater to survive.
According to UNIDO Country Representative and Regional Director for Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, Mr David Tommy, the water initiatives are centred on countries and regions classified as Water Scarce, saying the international agency would support Heineken International B.V. to implement such projects in the country.
He said that the organisation will directly support Heineken in the delivery of its commitment to reduce water consumption to 3.3 hectolitres of water per hectolitres of product in breweries located in the region, adding that the activities will initially focus on Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Mexico and Tunisia. Tommy explained that a specialized methodology has been uniquely developed to identify and generate key water issues in regions, stressing that such project has been applied in Ethiopia.
He said: “In Nigeria, the Heineken operating company, Nigerian Breweries Plc, which manages several production units across the country will work with UNIDO, the Government of Nigeria and other stakeholders to identify and overcome cumulative stress on finite water resources, shared by multiple stakeholders in selected catchment areas through collaborative efforts’’.
According to him, these efforts would create awareness among the stakeholders on water stress and its root causes within relevant catchment areas, identifying water risks, mobilizing additional resources to upscale water balancing efforts, so that the overall water stress could be reduced through collaborative efforts.
This is in addition to implementing targeted water balance projects in an inclusive, participatory and phased approach for overall water stress reduction.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Environment, Mr Bukar Hassan said there is less water to go round than ever before, saying “what is left is getting dirtier as we fail to protect our rivers, lakes and streams.
Considering the fact that human and wildlife depend on freshwater, he said the global water crisis is important to everybody, including the private and public sectors of the economy.
He explained that water stewardship was about business enterprises, understanding the risks they face from water scarcity and pollution while taking action to ensure that water is managed sustainably as a shared, public resource.
Hassan pointed out that this surpassed being efficient water user, saying it is about the private sector collaborating with governments, Non-governmental Organizations, communities and others to protect shared freshwater resources.
‘’The development of public-private partnership for water stewardship programmes aims at overcoming cumulative stress on finite water resources shared by multiple stakeholders in selected catchment areas through collaborative action’’, he stated.
According to him, the project would protect water resources; reduce carbon monoxide emissions, sourcing sustainability, advocating responsible consumption, hand safety of its people and growing with communities. “It is heart-warming to note Nigeria is one of the countries, where the initial phase of water stewardship programme will be rolled out.
Other countries include Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Mexico. It is also noteworthy that one critical question to be answered at this stakeholder workshop would focus on what we have to do to guarantee water supply for people and businesses in operating catchment areas of the Nigerian Breweries in a socially, environmentally and economically sustainable way’’
In his remarks, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Breweries, Mr Nicholas Vervelde said the company’s sustainable strategy, tagged ‘Brewery a Better World’, centred on protecting water resources, reduce carbon emission, responsible consumption while ensuring health and safety of communities.
He said that the essence of the initiative was to ensure that stakeholders bring their experiences and view points to bear in a balanced way, adding that it will also ensure a common supported by all stakeholders on the most important water issues on collective efforts required to enhance water security. ‘’We are all users of water in our daily lives and there is a true saying that ‘’water is life’’. I hope this workshop brings a better of how we can optimally use this important resource to minimize wastage’’, he added.
According to a recent World Bank study on African water resources, two-third of sub-Saharan Africa’s rural population and one-quarter of urban dwellers currently lack access to potable water while millions of Africans die each year from water-borne and water-related diseases.
Assistant Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Protection, UNEP, Mr Jorge Illueca said, “Water is unevenly distributed by nature and unevenly allocated by humans, saying poor spend too much of limited income, calories and time to get inadequate amounts of water are most at risk from the lack of water availability.
Another problem is that sub-Saharan Africa, a large portion of which is semi-arid, has “too little water or too much, in the wrong place or at the wrong time, and often of poor quality,” according to the World Bank. Precipitation is highly variable and unpredictable across much of sub-Saharan Africa, and run-off the water which is removed from the soil over the surface or through drains beneath the surface is exceptionally low. Drought is endemic, often lasting from one to five years.
It said, out of 250 million people, half of sub-Saharan Africa’s population have no access to safe drinking water, and almost 300 million lack adequate sanitation, stressing that if the current situation does not improve, an estimated 500 million Africans are likely to be without safe water and sanitation by the year 2020, given the rate of population growth.
‘’Dwindling water supplies of lower quality, and at ever-higher costs, also will constrain food production and increase environmental degradation and may possibly’’, it added. Some countries Mali, Ethiopia, Uganda and Mozambique and the Zambezi River Basin have been selected as the initial focus for collaboration on improving the availability and management of the continent’s water resources within the framework of the UN System-wide Special Initiative on Africa.
The availability of water has emerged as a critical issue in Africa’s development in part because providing households with secure sources of water and making water available for rained and irrigated agriculture are seen as key elements in any strategy for poverty reduction.
For these reasons, the goal of the Special Initiative’s water component with the World Bank and the UN Environment Programme, UNEP, as the lead agencies is to ensure reasonable access to and a fair share of water at affordable prices for the poor majority throughout the continent. This “fair share” approach calls for balanced use of water across different sectors and needs, in national economic development plans and between countries using shared water resources.
The Special Initiative, launched by the UN in 1996, is a programme of concrete actions to accelerate African development over the coming decade by boosting access to basic education, health, and water, improving governance and increasing food security.
It aims at achieving greater cooperation among the agencies and organizations of the UN family, including the Bretton Woods institutions, in support of Africa’s development priorities. Agriculture already accounts for more than 80 per cent of water consumption in sub-Saharan Africa. But less than a third of Africa’s irrigation potential is exploited.
The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that in 1990, only 2 per cent of sub- Saharan Africa’s arable land was irrigated. With an annual rate of population growth at nearly 3 per cent, crop yields must be increased significantly if countries are to advance towards food self-sufficiency.
This means production must be expanded through better water harvesting, water and soil conservation, improved technology and farming practices, and increasing areas under irrigation. But only 4 per cent of the approximately 4 trillion cubic metres of renewable water available is currently being used, due to lack of appropriate infrastructure and technical and financial means.
In addition to its development benefits, efficient water management is becoming an ever more urgent environmental concern in a continent undergoing rapid growth in urbanization and industrialization, as well as population. These trends have worsened contamination of freshwater from domestic and industrial waste as well as agrochemicals.
In Africa, this problem is compounded by the low level of government spending on water supply and sanitation usually less than 1 per cent of the national budget along with poor operation and maintenance of water and sanitation infrastructure. The crisis extends beyond national borders as well.
All countries in sub-Saharan Africa share one or more river basins, with at least 54 rivers or water bodies that cross or form international boundaries. But few are effectively managed in a joint manner. Better cooperation and greater investment in shared water basins is needed, but so too is water policy reform at the national level.
The first step in the process, say the experts, is to acknowledge water as a scarce resource and its centrality to poverty reduction, economic growth, food security and environmental protection. The Special Initiative on Africa is working to achieve UN system collaboration in support of the goal of equitable access to and sustainable use of the continent’s water resources.
A UN inter-agency Informal Working Group on Water was formed in April 1996, cochaired by UNEP and the World Bank, to decide on practical steps to meet the four objectives of the Special Initiative’s water cluster. The working group agreed to designate the initial four target countries of Mali, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Uganda, and the Zambezi River Basin based on their geographical representatives and on evidence of government commitment to integrated water resources management.
The group also agreed that among the target countries, the broad goals of cooperation are to include capacity-building, improvement of information capacity, identification of investment requirements and stimulation of sector investment.
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