Water is a natural resource of fundamental importance and an essential ingredient for human security and sustainable development, hence its significant impact on health, food security, poverty and the environment.
Despite the indispensability of this much-desired resource, and efforts made by government and individuals to make it available, an average Nigerian cannot get access to potable water because of the composition.
To ameliorate this problem of water scarcity, there is need to theoretically examine water accounting and how it can be used to alleviate the challenges of water scarcity in Nigeria.
Water accounting is the systematic study of the current status and trends in water supply, demand, accessibility and use in domains that have been specified.
Furthermore, it entails systematic acquisition, analysis and communication of information relating to stocks, flows and fluxes of water (from sources to sinks) in natural, disturbed or heavily engineered environments.
Water accounting in a practical sense is used as a basis for evidence-informed decision-making and policy development by answering questions such as: What are the underlying causes of imbalances in water supply (quantity and quality) and demand of different water users and uses?
Is the current level of consumptive water use sustainable?
The idea behind water accounting is the existence of scope worldwide to improve water-related sectoral and inter-sectoral decision-making at local, regional and national levels.
For example, government line departments, when attempting to align plans, rarely have access to a common information base.
A key output of water accounting is, therefore, a common information base that is acceptable to all the key stakeholders involved in planning or other decision-making processes.