with newsmen on Thursday in Abuja.He said that water took priority among the basic needs of life, adding that human beings could survive without electricity and other basic things but could not survive without water. ``Infact ,water can sustain live for about five days without food so among the food items water comes first,'' he said. He said that a study done by Commonwealth nations linked access to water with the GDP, the more people have access to water the higher the GDP of that nation.``If we are aspiring to be one of the highest 20 economy of the world by 2020 we must be able give water priority. It is important because water is the blood and the nerve center of any nation,'' he said. According to him, the importance of the resource is the reason that the UN made it a fundamental right which water authorities should not deny the people.`` It is a right; every nation must guarantee at least 30 litres of clean water for a person daily. ``The fact that the country has not been able to do it means that we have a room to improve and we intend to work with other stakeholders in the sector to achieve this.The executive director said that the impact of water showed on almost every part of the 7-Point Agenda. `` When you talk of energy, from hydro-power to nuclear, to gas each one of them require a lot of water.`` The cheapest and easiest way of transporting goods is inland navigation, if your river is blocked, you can't do inland navigation. `` If you come to education, provision of water to communities will release children to pursue education and sanitary facilities in schools which will in turn increase the number of students going to school by 80 per cent,'' he said.It was reported that NIWRMC was approved by the Federal Executive Council as a commission in May 2007 and came into operation in 2008. It was established to provide equitable, effective and efficient integrated water resources management that would guarantee sustainability and promote water security in the country.
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