Abstract

The current water management practices in Nigeria may not be robust enough to cope with the impacts of climate variability on water supply reliability, flood risk, health, agriculture, energy and aquatic. As such, the impacts of climate variability on water resources utilities were evaluated. This paper, therefore, focused on climate variability effects on water and ecosystems services, particularly under extreme weather conditions such as flooding and drought; taking into account the variability in precipitation and temperature. The study was based on a review of existing assessments during the years 1999 to 2010. The major aim of the study was to explore how climate variability affects water resources in Nigeria by determining the impact of climate variability on water resources sustainability and how these changes are controlled by the impacts of climate variability. The result showed that the cost in future of the emerging climate scenario for Nigeria will be too expensive. As the loss for Nigeria is projected to be between 2 and 11% of Nigeria’s GDP by 2020; rising to between 6 and 30% by the year 2050. Some mitigation and adaptation strategies were recommended.

Key words: Water resources, climate variability, extreme events, precipitation, temperature, impacts.