Water Resources Bill: Militants will take over Niger Delta – NASS warned

The National Assembly has been warned not to reintroduce the Water Resources Bill or be ready for a resurgence of militancy in the Niger Delta region.

The warning is coming from the chairman, Board of Trustees, Centre for Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Crusade (CHURAC), Cleric Alaowei, on the heels of the reintroduction of the bill last week at the National Assembly.

Alaowei, in a statement in Warri, Delta State, picked holes in the bill and advised the Federal Government to eschew adding another impasse to a country that’s already battling with life-threatening ailments.

“On a critical analysis of the bill, we learned that the proposed Water Resources Regulatory Commission’s responsibility, among others, is to grant permission to water users for a particular period of time upon payment of a fee.

“The commission has the power to renew, suspend or cancel any licence it has issued. Again, it also has the obligation to determine the cost.

“The danger therein is that the Niger Delta people will once again be colonised by the Nigerian Government through legislative intervention.

“There’s no gainsaying the fact that the poor community dwellers must apply for a licence, pay the required cost and obtain approval before they can carry out commercial fishing activities or any other businesses in their own ancestral territorial waters. Any community that fails to meet these criteria will be penalised for illegal encroachment.

“The riverine communities, particularly those without land mass like the coastal Niger Delta communities who use the bank of the river for domestic activities like washing and occasionally for other purposes, will pay for discharging waste into the river.

“There’s no doubt that the Bill if passed into law, will be inconsistent with the 1999 Constitution (as amended). It will also run contrary with the Supreme Court cases affirming powers of state governments over inland waterways and physical planning.

“Same also applied to the Land Use Act which vests ownership of land on state governors. The Bill therefore, is an interloper designed to arrogate state governments’ powers.

“Federal Government must get its priority right. A country that is faced with mounting misery index, insecurity, corruption and capital flight, resulting in acute poverty and frustration, cannot be making water resources a priority.

“Already, there are enough existing laws on water resources. Viz: The Water Resources Act, River Basin Development Authority Act, Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (Establishment) Act, National Water Resources Institute Act, among others are already in place.

“A law that seeks to strip a people of their heritage, properties and sources of income with the capacity to push them deeper into the abyss of poverty cannot be said to be in the country’s national interest, except for reason covertly to advance the course of sectional interest.

“Reintroducing the Bill to the ninth National Assembly that was twice rejected on national interest by the eighth Assembly and earlier by this ninth Assembly is suspicious.

“Like the botched Rural Grazing Areas (RUGA) Bill, the 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 water fronts across the country, particularly in the Niger Delta areas,” the rights activist said.

“People of good conscience with the fear of God must rally round to ensure that it is rejected once again, otherwise, history will record them as accomplice to this plan to deprive communities in the coastal areas of their territories, fishing business and means of livelihood.”