No fewer than 997,000 residents of Adamawa, Yobe and Borno States have been provided potable water.
This was stated at a three-day meeting on Directorate-General for International Corporation – Accelerated Sanitation and Water for All II Programme endline and local investment plan.
It was implemented by Federal Government, and United Nations Children’s Fund with support from Government of Netherlands, held in Gombe State on Thursday, as part of the project’s key achievement.
The programme was implemented for five years between 2019-2023 with Jada and Guyuk (Adamawa); Biu and Meigumeri (Borno); Fune and Geidam (Yobe) as benefiting LGAs.
The project’s key achievement partly read, “997,000 people in the target LGAs were provided with safe drinking water
“880,000 people stopped defecating in the open and are now using a safe and hygienic toilet facility
“A total of 500 new water facilities were constructed and 1,000 broken-down facilities were rehabilitated
“54 schools and 38 healthcare facilities were provided with basic water, sanitation and hygiene
“Three local government (Biu, Guyuk and Jada) were declared open defecation free by the National Task Group on Sanitation.
“As a result of the above achievements, the programme contributed to improved health, nutrition and well-being of poor and vulnerable people in targeted rural LGAs and communities, especially among women and girls. The programme ask contributed to the positive reduction in “children on the move” outbreak of cholera diseases in the period of implementation.”
Speaking Jonatham Ekhator, WASH Specialist UNICEF Nigeria, called on other states borrow a leaf, following the feats attained noting that the impacts are overwhelming, “if you go across the entire North-East you will see what is currently happening through the efforts of UNICEF and Federal Government of Nigeria in the area of WASH each state is implementing based on their needs and the resources available.”
On sustainability the WASH expert urged government to continue to support what has happened, adding “by taking ownership of the results in their communities as the water facility is good, sanitation is good and the women and children benefit. We encourage facilities to take ownership.”
Also speaking, Director, Water Supply and Support Services, Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Dr Nicholas Dumebi, harped on sustainability plan, recalling the efforts of the Federal Government to concretise achievements attained.
Represented by Ogbonna Kenneth, Dumebi 46 per cent of WASH facilities are unsustainable, adding “What our ministry did starting from 2019 when we started this programme under the former Minister there was a sustainability compact that was developed like an agreement between Federal and State Governments to sustain the facilities and today we are developing sustainability action plan what we did was to leverage on that because sustainability is a big issue in Nigeria.”
On his part, Emir of Jajere, Hamza Buba, lauded the project adding “this is a great achievement for our local government, state, and nation. Availability of water will improve their well-being and will make their lives better.”
While urging for extension of the project Baba said “We wish to extend this gesture to other communities to benefit.”
UNICEF Climate Change and WASH Manager, Chiranjibi Tiwari, urged the communities to sustain the successes achieved.
Meanwhile, Participants comprising stakeholders in Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency in a communique said the LGA and State are aware of the gaps in access despite the achievements of this project.
“That the State and LGA will explore avenues to mobilise funding to continue the construction and rehabilitation of WASH facilities in schools, healthcare facilities, and public places
“That the LGA and the State will include specific budget lines annually to cover this gap while working with donors to attract more donor funding to the state
“That stakeholders from the community and LGAs will plan and implement advocacy to the government at national and state level for releases of budgeted funds for the programmes and other WASH interventions in the state,” the communique added.
you have got an amazing blog right here! would you prefer to make some invite posts on my blog?
I think other web-site proprietors should take this website as an model, very clean and magnificent user friendly style and design, let alone the content. You are an expert in this topic!