As Nigeria moves towards the attainment of an Open Defecation Free (ODF) status by 2025, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) says, the country requires an average 5.7 million dollars to achieve water and sanitation services in a local government area.
\nUNICEF Chief of Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Mr. Zaid Jurji who disclosed this when the organised private sector on water, sanitation and hygiene (OPS-WASH) met with the Minister of Water Resources, Mr. Suleiman Adamu in Abuja.
\nJurji who appreciated the current effort by the government towards ending open defecation in the country however said current efforts must tally with increasing population.
\nWe are close to 200 million people and with the increasing population, if every year, there is an increase of service for five million people. It is barely enough as we are competing with natural population increase. So if we do five million people, we have done nothing. We are just breaking even, so anything to be measured toward the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) must be done beyond that, this is to give you the scale of the problem.
\nWith our unit of intervention, we have been working for so many years now with the Ministry of Water Resources and at the state level, every local government area requireS an average of $5.7 million to achieve water and sanitation services.
\nHe added that UNICEF would continue to support organisations and communities to promote Sustainable Development Goals such as ending open defecation practice and overall hygiene promotion in the country.
\nHe also urged organisations to coordinate their activities to halt duplication of efforts, promotion of effective implementation and monitoring for the programme success.
\nEarlier, the minister; while welcoming the team, pledged government\u2019s commitment to partner with the organised private sector in financing and improving corporate social responsibilities in the fight against open defecation practice in the country.
\nAdamu said the role of the private sector in the revitalisation of the WASH sector cannot be overlooked, being the engine room for economic growth.
\nThe minister said the federal government had targeted a zero open defecation goal by 2025. Saying with commitment from all stakeholders, this would be achieved. According to him, the lack of synergy among development partners\u2019 interventions has led to groundwater depletion largely from unregulated activities.
\nThere is urgent need for sanity in the water resoruces sector.
\nWe need to measure all social impact of current interventions, is not just about figures and monies, we need to synergise all efforts for the benefit of all Nigerias\u201d Adamu said.
\nMeanwhile, Guinness Nigeria, a subsidiary of Diageo Plc, has announced a long-term water intervention project across five states in Nigeria.
\nIn addition to providing clean, potable water in these state the multinational orgnaisationis also supporting the federal government to intensify hand washing culture in public places to halt lassa fever.
\nThe beneficiaries of the project are Edo, Kano, Kebbi, Nasarawa States and F.C.T.
\nTitilola Alabi, society manager at Guinness, Nigeria, disclosed this during the meeting with Suleiman Adamu, in Abuja.
\nAlabi said: currently in this financial year, we are committed to establishing five new water schemes in Abuja, Edo, Kano Kebbi and Nasarawa states.
\nWe have chosen the communities in these states carefully following a needs assessment and for the benefit of a larger population.\u201d
\nCurrently our water of life project, created to provide water to under-served communities by solar powered water systems in providing water to over one million Nigerians. We have 33 of such water schemes across, 22 states.
\nAlso speaking Dr Nicholas Igwe, national coordinator, organised private sector of wash, noted that the role of private sector in scaling up water and sanitation in the country could not be over-emphasised.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
By: Amina Ngoma<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As Nigeria moves towards the attainment of an Open Defecation Free (ODF) status by 2025, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) says, the country requires an average 5.7 million dollars to achieve water and sanitation services in a local government area. UNICEF Chief of Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Mr. Zaid Jurji who disclosed this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":217456,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-226474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-city-crime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=226474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/217456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=226474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=226474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=226474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}