Environment
THE Federal Government has urged all relevant stakeholders to intensify effort on improving access to Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), as it will bring open defecation in the country to an end.
The Minister of Water Resources, Malam Suleiman Adamu, made the call on Sunday when he featured on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja.
Adamu said that efforts by states, local governments and other stakeholders would arrest the development of open defecation practice.
He said that the Federal Government would promote a sustainable access to good WASH at all levels of government.
Adamu said that his ministry had trained about 100 volunteers from the 36 states on advocacy to improve sanitation in various communities.
“The ministry sent the volunteers out to various communities to engage in awareness on how the communities can improve on WASH and they have done relatively good work.
“At least you can see even the reduced incidences of COVID-19 pandemic will probably be supported and there is a lot of awareness going on, on how to prevent the spread of the pandemic.
“But for us, what is most important is that these 100 volunteers per local government are vanguards for the continued advocacy to improve WASH in our communities,” he said.
The minister expressed hope that some states that had taken the initiative would build on the legacy, though some had not commenced.
“As you know, we don’t all progress at the same speed, however, the Federal Government has made available, resources for advocacy.
“It is a volunteer service. The only thing is that we gave them a stipend of N20,000 each every month for transportation and I have advised the state commissioners to harness Federal Government effort,’’ he said.
Adamu said that he had a meeting with all the state commissioners, adding that the effort was to ensure that open defecation practice was eradicated, through a strong campaign on access to WASH.
He said that the campaign could not just end in the FCT alone, adding that it must be something all Nigerians should be engaged in.
Adamu said that the ministry had set up a National WASH Committee on Response to COVID-19, during the pandemic with all the state commissioners, adding that the essence was to improve on access to WASH.
According to him, the campaign is something that is top-down, down-up and horizontal adding that everybody should be involved.
“So, we should not be looking at it as, where is the Federal Minister of Water Resources?
“No, I think by now the question we should start asking state chief executives is, what are the states and local governments doing, to ensure that the campaign on open defecation practice is effective.
“Every year we have the WASH national outline routine mapping that we do. It is a survey that we do,” Adamu said.
He said that in doing the survey, the ministry gave every state data on the progress they had made on sanitation, hygiene and water supply and they could see these in relation to what other states were doing.
“This is evidence, because if you have the evidence, then it should be able to help you to redirect your policies to see where you need to change your source.
“So, at the federal level we have done everything we need to do to support the states and it is up to the local governments and the individuals to adequately make their contributributions.
“These are part of the effort that we are making to ensure that open defecation practice ends in the country,’’ Adamu said. (NAN)
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Tags: Malam Suleiman Adamu WASH Water Sanitation and Hygiene
