Due to the recurrent
expression of inadequate funds, WaterAid Nigeria, an international NGO, has advocated for goodwill funds to augment budgetary allocation and donor funds for the water sector.
WaterAid Country Representative in Nigeria, Dr Michael Ojo, made the call in an interview with newsmen  recently.
While noting that development partners’ contribution can never supersede government’s funding to meet the yearning needs of Nigerians, Ojo urged well-meaning Nigerians to prioritise water and sanitation in their agenda.
He said that government funding of the water sanitation and hygiene was grossly inadequate, and called for increased financial resources to the sector ,due to its crucial role in development.
“Nigeria is fantastically rich and the work that we do as WaterAid, actually takes money from donors, many of who are ordinary people in many parts of the world.
“They feel so strongly about the issue that they have prepared to keep some money aside every month to fund the work that we do in Africa, in South Asia, in the Pacific region.
“We are appealing to Nigerians that they should begin to solve the problems of Nigeria.
“There is enough money within the system; there are resources within the system, if only we would apply the same amount of political will and personal will to dealing with the issue”.
The Tide reports that stakeholders in the WASH sector have repeatedly complained of inadequate funding of the sector, saying that it has led to a large number of dilapidated and abandoned projects.
A 2012 survey carried out by the Federal Government showed that the water sector had the highest number of uncompleted, abandoned and non-functional facilities.
These projects include 14,000 dysfunctional hand pump boreholes, 377 water supply projects and 52 irrigation and drainage projects.
Meanwhile, both state and Federal Governments have been advised to pool funds to harness the potential of 41 dams in the North East and South East zones.
However, the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, in collaboration with Tulsi Chanrai Foundation, an NGO, rehabilitated 1,000 boreholes in 18 states in 2011.
They had agreed that with proper funding, at least 5,000 boreholes would be rehabilitated yearly, but our source learnt that this has not been achieved.
Meanwhile,  the Executive Secretary of Water and Sanitation in Africa, Mr Idrissa Doucoure,  has said that $45 billion  must be invested annually for the continent to meet its drinking water needs.
Doucoure said this at the recently-ended International Forum on Infrastructure in Africa held in Brazzaville, Congo.
He expressed concern that African governments did not give drinking water infrastructure the same attention as they did for transport, sports and telecommunication.
He stressed the need to explore other areas, including public-private-partnership, to source the “massive” capital needed to develop infrastructure in Africa.