By Stella Odueme
As Nigeria joined the rest of the world to mark World Water Day on Friday, the Federal Government said it has constructed 6,761 water schemes in the urban, semi-urban and rural areas to meet the water supply needs of about 32 million people across the country.
The Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Prof. Joseph Utsev, who said this at a press briefing as part of activities to commemorate the celebrations noted that under the sanitation sub-sector, 10,568 sanitation facilities were constructed in institutions and public places in 127 Local Government Areas to serve 550,820 persons.
He said the 2024 World Water Day, with the theme “Water for Peace, is borne out of need to galvanize active response to water crisis and seek out innovative measures to improve access to potable water supply, with a core focus to support the attainment of Sustainable Development Goal 6: “water and sanitation for all by 2030”.
Utsev said his ministry has developed several initiatives in partnership with government at all levels and critical stakeholders in the water and sanitation sector to improve funding for water resources projects and programmes, increase resource mobilization and enhance investment in water infrastructure.
He said the first phase of the Partnership for Expanded Water Supply, Sanitation, and Hygiene (PEWASH) Programmes with the focus to increase access to water supply in rural areas as well as sanitation in public places has been completed.
“So far, 2,190 Nos. of water supply schemes (boreholes) were constructed to serve 2,006,250 persons with 3,001,578 litres/day,” he said.
On the Clean Nigeria Campaign to end open defecation by 2025, Utsev disclosed that his ministry has since 2019 embarked on nationwide campaign to end open defecation in Nigeria by 2025.
” I am pleased to inform you that since assumption of office, we have secured additional 15 ODF LGAs in five (5) States of the Federation, and as of today, 120 LGAs across the country are Open Defecation Free (ODF) with Jigawa State having earlier attained the State – wide ODF in Nigeria.”
The minister noted that following a declaration of a state of emergency in the WASH sector in 2018, that a National WASH Action Plan was initiated by his ministry to address the low and poor access to WASH services in the country.
He also said his ministry, with support from the World Bank, launched the Sustainable Urban Rural Water Sanitation and Hygiene (SURWASH) to increase access to water supply in Urban, Small Towns, and Rural Areas as well as strengthen sector institutions in the participating states.
