A programme packaged as part of practical solutions and a new approach that can help us work together to strike a balance between meeting our water needs today and preserving nature's ability to continue meeting our needs in the future.
We know all of us need clean drinking water in order to live. But our rivers, lakes and freshwater ecosystems provide us much more. They water our crops, give us fish to eat, power our factories, light our homes, carry our goods to market and our people back home, and bring us aesthetic joy. The UN estimates that in the year 2017, close to 70 percent of the global population will have problems accessing fresh water. Therefore we need to preserve our watersheds and clean water sources by protecting the health of lands and forests around our rivers and lakes – the watersheds – to keep pollution out of our water, and by keeping rivers flowing in healthy ways.
Water is essential to life, being second to oxygen in this regard. One can survive for weeks without food but only about five days without water. Up to three quarters of our body weight is made up of water – for example our brain is about 75% water. Water helps us to digest and absorb our food, carrying nutrients to our body cells. Water removes toxins and other waste, lubricates our joints and regulates body temperature.
Each day our body eliminates an average of about 2 litres of water through our skin, lungs, intestine and kidney. According to medical doctors, if this water is not replaced, we will become dehydrated. The signs of dehydration are headache, fatigue, muscle soreness, dark urine, heat intolerance and dry mouth/eyes.
To create awareness and foster an integrated approach to watershed and biodiversity protection by collaborating with governments, communities, development partners and the private sector, to help improve the management and protection of watersheds and secure the water resources on which our present and future development depend.
Protecting freshwater watersheds and its biodiversity in the Niger Delta.
Provide practices that promote responsible water environment stewardship by protecting forests and enhancing freshwater ecosystems.
Campaign for innovative water funds that can help finance the protection of watersheds which supply drinking water to our cities.
Campaign to substantially increase funding for existing designated protected forest reservations and create new protected areas in the Niger Delta with a rainforest and freshwater focus.
Nigeria is located in the tropical zone of West Africa between latitudes 4°N and 14°N and has a total area of 923,770 km². Land cover ranges from thick mangrove forests and dense rain forests in the south to a near-desert condition in the northeastern corner of the country. Three broad ecological zones are distinguished: the northern Sudan Savanna, the Guinea Savanna zone or Middle Belt, and the southern rainforest zone.
Mean annual rainfall over the whole country is estimated at 1,150 mm, concentrated in the period June–September. Total cultivable area is estimated at 61 million hectares – 66 percent of the total area of the country.
Nigeria is well drained with a close network of rivers and streams, with four principal surface water basins: the Niger Basin (63% of the country), the Lake Chad Basin (20%), and the southwestern and southeastern littoral basins. Nigeria's total annual renewable water resources are estimated at 286.2 km³.
Nigeria participates in two regional authorities dealing with shared water resources: the Niger Basin Authority (NBA) and the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC). Lake Chad itself ranges in surface area from a minimum of 2,000 km² to a maximum of 22,000 km² and is of global importance for biodiversity and migratory birds.