By Meletus EZE
The European Union (EU) says it is targeting 10.1 million Nigerians to access to potable water with 265 million Euros expended so far to ensure the realisation of the goal.
The Coordinator, EU Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Reform Programme Phase III (WSSSRP III) Mrs Kate Kanebi made this known on Wednesday.
According to her, the EU’s efforts has ensured that 14 states constructed water facilities in two local government areas each with supply of water and office equipment for programme sustainability.
She said that the organisation expressed hope that by mid-2019, the programme would have been concluded.
The coordinator said that there might be possibility of expanding intervention to urban water utilities for commercialisation and cost recovery.
She, however, called on three tiers of government to make huge investment in the water sector for the benefit of the populace and take ownership of water facilities built over the years.
Kanebi expressed dismay that a large number of water projects to improve people’s access to potable water had failed after few years.
She said that this trend should be reversed with consistent investments in the sector and maintenance of the existing facilities.
According to her, we had to come back to rehabilitate what we did during the first phase, some of them did not work for five years, some of them did not work at all after we inaugurated them in 2011.
“By the time we came back in 2018 in most of the states, some of them were no longer functioning, in fact, more than 80 per cent was non-functional, so the ministries and agencies need to do a lot. ”
She said efforts of development partners was not up to one per cent of the funding needed in the sector, stressing the imperative of government at all levels to complement the efforts of international donors.
The coordinator said that the EU was working to improve water governance and institutional capacity for increased access to safe, adequate and sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene services in Adamawa, Ekiti and Plateau states.
According to her, there is the need for capacity building, sector coordination and community mobilisation and awareness toward introducing commercial aspects in the water supply and sanitation sector.
She, however, said the role of building the capacity of state water utilities and its officials could not be over-emphasised.
“We had a pact to build the capacity for all institutions to ensure that the mandate of these water agencies are fulfilled, we have the technical assistants, the water boards and corporations embedded in the trainings,” she added.
Kanebi expressed dismay at low government investments in the water sector, while the EU had been able to fund the sector appreciably.
She said this was in addition to the issue of sudden redeployment of trained workers to manage the water facilities built by development partners, which was affecting sustainability.
She said that the second phase was the implementing water supply and sanitation programme in Anambra, Cross River, Osun, Jigawa, Kano and Yobe states.
She added that the WSSSRP programme scale up was being implemented in the Niger Delta Support Programme Component Three in Akwa Ibom, Delta, Edo, Bayelsa and Rivers, on policy improvement and institutional framework for water governance.
“We are hoping that with these interventions, the water institutions have a policy to be able to govern themselves and fulfil their mandate of service delivery sustainably to the populace,” she said.
