Demand 04
Advance Climate-Resilient Water Governance
Climate change is already disrupting the region's water systems through increasingly unpredictable rainfall, droughts, floods and rising temperatures. Since 2000, floods have affected an estimated 248,000 people every year across the Sahel, while drought between 2016 and 2020 contributed to more than 20 million people experiencing food insecurity and economic hardship (Food Security Cluster, 2020). These pressures extend beyond water availability. They affect food production, public health, livelihoods and mobility, and can intensify competition over land and natural resources. In the Lake Chad Basin, for example, water ecosystems support the livelihoods of an estimated 30 million people, while climate pressures, population growth, migration and conflict interact to deepen vulnerability (Lamarche, 2023). We demand sustained investment in climate-resilient water infrastructure, decentralized water systems, rainwater harvesting, sustainable irrigation, groundwater management, watershed restoration and accessible early-warning systems.
Call To Action
We demand that governments prioritize water infrastructure that can withstand droughts, floods and extreme rainfall, and to focus investments particularly on underserved rural communities, informal settlements and climate-vulnerable areas.
We demand that the government expand the number of community-managed boreholes, promote rainwater harvesting, and enable small-scale water storage and other decentralized systems.
We call on the governments to restore degraded watersheds, wetlands, riverbanks and groundwater recharge areas.
Improve monitoring of groundwater extraction, quality and recharge rates, while ensuring that groundwater is treated as strategic public resources and protected from over-extraction, pollution and unregulated commercial use.
Invest in locally accessible alerts and community preparedness systems, including through mobile and local communication networks.
Put vulnerable communities at the centre of water planning while ensuring that people with lived experience inform adaptation plans, infrastructure investments and emergency responses.
Water security should be prioritized and made a core component of National Adaptation Plans, agricultural strategies, urban development and disaster-risk planning.
We call for dedicated, grant-based climate funding for WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) initiatives, ensuring direct financial support to local authorities and community organizations to establish and maintain climate-resilient infrastructure.
References
[6] https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/08/food-storage-as-business-opportunity/
[7] https://www.thecable.ng/fao-14-4m-nigerians-facing-food-crisis-amid-insecurity-rising-inflation