Jornal de Geologia e Geofísica
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Threats to Water Resources Development in Nigeria

Amah Joseph Idu

“Threats to Water Resources Development” is a broad topic having global and national dimensions. Even though these threats cut across international boundaries, this paper focuses on the Nigerian geographical boundaries. We start with the general understanding that our water resources are made up of surface and groundwater components which are hydraulically connected. Secondly, these threats arise from two causes; natural and anthropogenic. The natural causes include all those adverse fallouts from climate change and hydrological extremes: well failures in shallow aquifers due to imbalance in seasonal precipitation and abstraction in the Sahel; sea level rise with attendant salt water intrusion in the coastal aquifers, decreased discharge rate of surface waters due to soil moisture deficits. The man-made threats include industrial wastes, effluents and oil spillages. Salinization of surface and ground waters through irrigation and fertilizers. Issues of threats to water resources development in Nigeria therefore follows the trajectory of water habitats, agricultural and industrial practices. While the Sahel with less than 750 mm rainfall per annum grapples with shallow well failures, water stress due to soil moisture deficits and salinization of surface and ground waters, the tropical rainforest zone with rainfall of 1250 mm-2500 mm contends with oil spillages which endanger local sources of water supply, and sea water intrusion. The Savannah zone with 1000 mm-1250 mm rainfall is relatively immune from the above natural threats but the anthropogenic threats more than compensates for these gains due to regulation lapses.