1st October, 2016
President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday in Abuja said his administration was committed to the revival of Lake Chad and improvement of the hydrology and ecology basin.
Buhari made this known in a nationwide broadcast to mark Nigeria’s 56th Independence Anniversary.
According to him, this is tune with efforts to rehabilitate the 30 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) affected by the Boko Haram insurgency in the Lake Chad basin countries.
He disclosed that Federal Government would revive all the 12 River Basin Authorities to boost agricultural activities across the country.
The affected River Basin Authorities, include Anambra-Imo, Benin- Owena, Chad Basin, Cross River, Hadejia-Jama’are, Lower Benue and Lower Niger.
Others are Niger Delta; Ogun – Osun; Sokoto – Rima; Upper Benue and Upper Niger Basin Authorities.
He said that the revival of the authorities was meant to fully commercialise them to better support crop production, aquaculture and accelerated rural development.
He said that government was introducing Water Resources Bill encompassing the National Water Resources Policy and National Irrigation and Drainage Policy to improve management of water and irrigation development in the country.