By Felix Shammah/Hillary Asemota
The Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA), has expressed readiness to strengthen its partnership with environmental journalists to improve public awareness on healthy environment, water resources management, flood forecasting, early warning systems and other hydrological issues affecting Nigerians.
The Director-General of NIHSA, Arc. Umar Muhammed, stated this when the Executive Council of Environmental Media Correspondents Association of Nigeria (EMCAN) led by Its Chairman, Joycelyn Adah, paid a courtesy visit to the agency’s management in Abuja.
Muhammed, who stressed the importance of stronger collaboration between the agency and the media in disseminating critical information to the public, said the media remained an important partner in helping the agency reach vulnerable communities with timely and accurate information, particularly on early warnings and water-related risks.
According to Director General NIHSA, effective management of water resources is critical to preventing water scarcity, contamination and outbreaks of water-related diseases.
“If you do not have a good Environment and manage water resources, one day you wake up and you will be shocked with what you see. Either you totally run out of water or you have no clean water,” he said.
Muhamed further warned against poor environmental management and contamination of water sources which according to him could have serious public health consequences, noting that human activities contribute significantly to the pollution of streams and other water bodies.
The NIHSA boss said the agency needed organizations such as EMCAN to interface with the public and ensure that quality information on water resources and early warning systems gets to those who need it timely and with accuracy.
“We will need an organisation like yours to interface with the public and disseminate quality information for public use,” he said.
The Secretary of the Association, Mr. Samuel Adeyinka, quoted the Chairman as saying that further discussion on the meeting centred on -EMCAN soliciting for NIHSA’s support on COP31, adding that the association used the occasion to formally inform the NIHSA management of its plans to cover the 31st Conference of the Parties (COP31), scheduled to hold in Türkiye.
The Chairman appealed to NIHSA to support the association’s participation in the global climate conference, particularly through sponsorship for two to three members who are being considered to represent the association.
She explained further that EMCAN had already commenced efforts to raise funds to facilitate the participation of its members but was seeking support from relevant government agencies and environmental organisations.
Responding, the NIHSA boss said the agency was itself making preparations to participate in COP31 and was exploring collaboration with international development partners, national agencies and other stakeholders.
On the request for sponsorship, the DG explained that NIHSA, as a federal government agency, operates within a statutory funding framework, explaining that the agency was already collaborating with international development partners and would explore opportunities that could potentially accommodate additional participation.
“If we are able to secure quite a number of slots, why not? Definitely, it’s something that we could consider,” he said, while noting that he could not give a definite commitment at the moment.” The DG, said.
While also soliciting NIHSA’s request for specialized media training and capacity development, the Special Assistant (SA) on Media to the agency Mr. Yakub Aliyu, harped on the importance of closer collaboration with environmental journalists, particularly in the areas of publicity and capacity building.
He said NIHSA required greater visibility to enable Nigerians to understand the agency’s mandate and appreciate the importance of hydrological information in preventing disasters.
Aliyu, noted that Nigeria faces both water scarcity and excess water challenges, including flooding, while contamination of water sources remains another major concern.
He said the contamination of streams and other water sources through human activities could increase the risk of diseases and other public health challenges.
He expressed the agency’s interest in partnering with EMCAN on specialized training programmes that would equip journalists with the technical knowledge required to accurately report hydrological and environmental issues.
The EMCAN delegation explained that many of its members also cover the environment and frequently report issues relating to water, climate change, flooding and environmental protection.
The Chairman acknowledged the importance of regular and specialized training for journalists covering technical sectors like NIHSA.
According to her, journalists covering government agencies needed to understand the specific mandates, operations and technical language of such institutions to enable them to report accurately.
She said EMCAN’s new leadership was therefore giving priority to capacity building as part of its efforts to improve the quality of environmental journalism in Nigeria.
In his remark, the Technical Adviser to the Director-General Mr. Stephen Jabo, called for stronger collaboration between the agency and the media to improve public awareness of its activities, particularly the annual flood outlook.
Jabo, said the agency’s work on water and land management directly affects Nigerians, but remains largely unknown to the public due to inadequate publicity and urged media organisations, especially environmental reporters, to liaise closely with NIHSA’s press unit, participate in its programmes and help disseminate critical information on flooding and other water-related issues to communities across the country.
He stressed that effective media coverage would make the agency more visible and enable Nigerians to better understand and benefit from its activities.
Adah, underscores the overarching mandate of NIHSA to national development, she said it has become extremely important to Nigeria but believed that more could be done to bring the agency’s activities to the front burner of public attention.
She said environmental journalists had continued to report the activities of NIHSA but were seeking to deepen the relationship under the association’s new leadership.
According to the Chairman, the group is interested in building stronger relationships with key environmental agencies, with NIHSA being one of its major partners.
“As environmental journalists, we have been following and reporting the activities of NIHSA, but we want to do more.” the Chairman said.
Adah noted that NIHSA’s work in hydrology, flood forecasting, early warning systems and water resources management had direct implications for the safety and wellbeing of Nigerians,hence the need collaboration of Capacity building for EMCAN members to project the activities of the Agency to the world.
The newly elected EMCAN Chairman reiterates that while NIHSA would benefit from stronger media visibility, EMCAN members would benefit from capacity-building opportunities, access to technical knowledge and better understanding of hydrological and environmental issues.
She said EMCAN would intensify its efforts to support the agency through consistent media coverage and wider dissemination of its activities to policymakers and the general public.
“We want to intensify our work to support NIHSA to make Nigerians better through deeply understanding the importance of what the agency does,” She explained.
The EMCAN Chairman also proposed a structured partnership between EMCAN and NIHSA, which she believed would create greater understanding between both organisations and promote mutually beneficial collaboration.
“We believe that when our members understand the work first-hand, they are better positioned to tell the NIHSA story accurately and effectively,” She said.
Both organisations expressed optimism that the courtesy visit would mark the beginning of a stronger and more sustained relationship, with particular emphasis on public enlightenment, professional development, early warning dissemination and improved reporting of Nigeria’s water and environmental challenges.
The meeting ended with both parties reaffirming their commitment to a mutually beneficial partnership that would ultimately help Nigerians better understand and respond to water-related and environmental risks.
The visit was part of activities used by the current leadership of EMCAN to familiarize the group with and project activities of relevant agencies in the interest of the masses and Nigeria’s development.