Experts have predicted that if nothing was done urgently, the northern part of the country could, in the next 10 years, face what was called “serious water stress” as a result of climate change.

According to the experts, by  this period, it would be difficult for states in the region, especially Kano, Sokoto and Borno, to successfully sink boreholes which would produce water.

Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Climate Change, Mr Ezinche Ubani, disclosed this in Minna, Niger State, on Tuesday, while interacting with officials of the Climate Change Centre of the Federal University of Technology.

According to Ubani, with the technical report before the committee,  in the next 10 years, it would be very difficult to live in some parts of the North because of the problem of shortage of water that the region would face.

He said it was, therefore, necessary for governments in the region to take serious steps at arresting the problem by encouraging massive tree planting and discouraging deforestation.

Ubani regretted that the nation did not have a policy on the protection of the environment adding that the House of Representatives had already commenced the process of legislating on climate change policy for the country which, he said, should be domesticated by state governments.

The chairman said that the National Assembly would collaborate with the center for climate change especially in the area of funding, adding that the centre would be upgraded by the House committee hosting some of its workshops and seminars in the university.

The Vice Chancellor of the university, Professor Mohammed Audu, in an address, said the centre, for the first time submitted a budget to the ministry of the environment and pleaded with the legislators to give it favourable attention.