An Abuja-based water and disaster management expert, Dr. Joachim
Ezeji, has proffered a solution to the rising wave of conflicts between
herdsmen and farmers in Nigeria, which he attributed to poor water
management practices across the country.
In a statement on Friday,
he stressed: ‘’Where economic growth is impacted by rainfall, episodes
of droughts and floods have generated waves of migration and statistical
spikes in violence within countries’’.
He argued that in a
globalised and connected world, such problems are impossible to
quarantine, adding that “where large inequities prevail, people move
from zones of poverty to regions of prosperity which can lead to
increased social tensions as is currently the case with herdsmen from
the north moving southwards’’.
“I can attribute the root cause of
the conflict to the current water management practices in Nigeria, which
in my informed judgement is not robust enough to cope with the impacts
of climate change, especially water supply reliability, flood risk,
health, agriculture, energy and aquatic ecosystems,” he stated.
According
to Ezeji, ‘‘in many parts of Nigeria, water management cannot
satisfactorily cope even with current climate variability, so that large
flood and drought damages occur’.
“As a first step therefore he suggests that the Federal Ministry of
Water Resources (FMWR) and its agencies such as the River Basins, should
embrace the incorporation of improved information about current climate
variability into water –related management because it would assist
adaptation to longer-term climate change impacts.”
He said that
water is a key element of a country’s security and can be the largest
impediment to its development, thus positing that water shortage and
droughts are the main constraints for regional development especially
for Northern Nigeria, noting that the river discharge in the middle
reaches of the Niger River as well as Lake Chad has continuously
declined over the last five decades, and that this is mainly due to land
use and climate change.
Ezeji further attributed land degradation
in Northern Nigeria to low vegetation coverage and long-term intense
agricultural activities.
To improve environmental quality and
health and increase vegetation coverage, he suggested that the Nigerian
government should initiate restoration programmes.
The development
expert argued that such restoration programmes, must employ a nexus
approach to the management of water and soil.