By Nneka Nwogwugwu
Chairman, Board of Trustees of the Centre for Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Crusade, Cleric Alaowei, has warned that the passage of the Water Resources Bill will resume militancy in the Niger Delta.
Alaowei, gave this warning in a statement on Monday while urging the Federal Government and the National Assembly to stop further hearings on the controversial water bill.
He informed that the National Water Resources Bill 2020 had been reintroduced at the Lower House of the National Assembly by Hon. Sada Soli.
The statement reads, “Reintroducing the Bill to the 9th National Assembly that was twice rejected on national interest by the 8th Assembly and earlier by this 9th Assembly is suspicious. Like the botched Rural Grazing Areas Bill, the desperate push for the passage of the Water Bill by vested interests in the core North is a snare to have a hold on the country’s waterfronts, particularly in the Niger Delta areas.”
“We are quite aware that the National Water Resources Bill was first introduced into the National Assembly in 2017 by President Muhammadu Buhari and passed by the Lower House but the Senate failed to concur. The bill was again reintroduced in the 9th House of Representatives by the same Sada Soli in July 2020. However, the proposed inimical legislation again suffered a setback.
“Just the way we have been opposing the passage of the obnoxious and draconian bill from inception, there’s no doubt that if passed into law, communities, and people living along waterfronts in the country, particularly in the Niger Delta Region, Lagos State, and other aquatic areas in the country, will be deprived of their major source of livelihood which is fishing.
“The Bill aims to confer ownership, control, and management of surface and underground waters on the FG like what they did in the petroleum resources. Implicitly, all waters in streams, lakes, seas, rivers, underground (boreholes), river beds, and banks found in and around any community in Nigeria become the exclusive preserve and property of the Federal Government, bringing water under the Exclusive Legislative List.
“Even if Hon. Sada Soli said he has removed the controversial clauses in the Bill, in our holistic overview of the entire law at the face value, we are quite sure that it will prohibit people living in the coastal areas to carry out fishing or use the river for any other purposes in the exercise of riparian rights without authorization and permission of FG, the new owner of all water bodies in the country. Again, no person(s) or company will be allowed to discharge wastewater into the river without the authorization of FG. The process is to be managed by Nigeria Water Resources Regulatory Commission.
“On critical analysis of the Bill, we got to know that the proposed Water Resources Regulatory Commission’s responsibility amongst others is to grant permission or license to water users for a particular period upon payment of a fee. The commission has the power to renew, suspend or cancel any license it has issued. Again, it also must determine the cost.
“The danger therein is that the Niger Delta people will once again be colonized by the Nigerian government through legislative intervention. There’s no gainsaying the fact that the poor riverine community dwellers must apply for a license, pay the required cost and obtain approval before they can carry out commercial fishing activities or any other businesses in their ancestral territorial waters. Any community that fails to meet these criteria will be penalized for illegal encroachment.
