Resources in water bodies can drive national economy- GEOSON

The Geo-Information Society of Nigeria (GEOSON) has said that the nation can drive its blue economy if the resources in its water bodies were fully explored, the society’s President, Dr Matthew Adepoju, has said.

In an interview, in Abuja, on Monday, Adepoju noted that mankind’s greatest asset was in the oceans, as water bodies accounted for 70 per cent of Planet Earth.

He decried that the many illegal activities going on in the country’s water bodies which, if positively harnessed,  would yield huge resources.

“Blue economy is the economy driven by water and the greatest asset of mankind is in the ocean; over 70 per cent of the planet earth is water bodies.

“Our coastline is a lot of space and nature has given us a lot of maritime boundaries which we have not explored.

“The resources in some of our water bodies are enough for government to drive the economy of the country. Fishing is being done illegally in our waters; lots of activities are going on too which we are not taking advantage of.

“We have shipping vessels that come around, they catch the fish in our territorial waters, package it, send them to us, we pay for it and it is a capital flight because we buy them in dollars’’, he said.

Adepoju added that if water resources were well harnessed and opened up to investors in the country, they would improve the federation’s account.

He said that GEOSON was putting measures in place for its annual conference expected to hold from Nov. 14 to 17 with the theme “Geospatial technology for Smart city and Blue economy’’.

Adepoju further said that the conference would address issues of urban development, using geospatial technology, and ways the country could develop its blue economy.