Michael Ale, a native of Ayegbaju Ekiti in Oye Local Government area of Ekiti State shoot into limelight in Nigeria’s water sector, when he became the youngest member of the Board of Governors of World Water Council, in 2012. Currently, he is the National President of Association of Water Well Drilling Rig Owners and Practitioners (AWDROP) in Nigeria. He spoke with eWASH’s Racheal Ogundipe on lessons learnt and takeaways from the recently concluded United Nations (UN) Water Conference 2023, which he participated as a member of Nigerian delegation.
- Discussions and sessions in the conference created avenues to increase access to water. There was sharing of ideas, activities and approaches to help solve water issues My major takeaway from the conference is that we need to monitor the implementation of several actions and commitments made during the conference towards meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
- I look forward to collaboration between the public and private sector in all countries to solve all pending global water issues.
- From Nigeria’s perspective, we should not look at practices in developed countries, such as their approach to project implementation and procurement; and adopt the best practices.
- Developing countries also need to implement policies and programmes at their own pace. We cannot compare ourselves to developed countries, and we should not expect to hit certain milestones simultaneously with already-developed countries.
- Nigeria must carry out more research towards accelerating change in Nigeria’s water sector.
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