Govt to partner Israel on water supply

THE Federal Ministry of Water Resources has expressed its willingness to collaborate with the government of Israel to boost potable water supply and provide capacity building for personnel of the ministry.Speaking during a courtesy visit by the Israeli Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Moshe Ram, Minister of Water Resources, Mrs. Sarah Ochekpe, said the Federal Government was prepared to work in collaboration towards achieving the present administration's transformation agenda in the provision of potable water for drinking and agriculture.Commending the Israeli government for the leading role it had been playing in agriculture and water technology, she said the ministry was in close collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture to proffer solution in the provision of water for irrigation farming.She said Nigeria is blessed with vast land that has to be put into effective cultivation to boost food production which would in turn reduce importation of consumable foods that can be produced locally.On the ongoing Israeli pilot water project in Minna, Niger State, the minister appealed that similar gesture be extended to other states through the existing River Basin Development Authorities (RBDAs) nationwide.On the invitation given to Nigeria to attend the sixth International Exhibition and third International Conference on Water Technologies slated for November 2011 in Israel, she said Nigeria had a lot to benefit from the programme.Ochekpe praised the Israeli government for providing assistance in the area of capacity training, explaining that such kind gestures were coming at a time when newly recruited engineers and scientists in the ministry needed training.
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