WorldStage Newsonline– The Federal Government of Nigeria has called on the state governments to give adequate support to the Sustainable Urban and Rural Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (SURWASH) programme by providing adequate funding for drinking water and sanitation services.
Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Engr. Prof Joseph Utsev who made the call at the 3rd Federal Steering Committee (FSC) meeting of the Nigeria -SURWASH program, on Thursday in Abuja, urged all state governments to be proactive towards the program.
SURWASH is a $700 million credit programme provided by World Bank to attain Sustainable Development Goals for WASH and provide a strategy to ensure that all Nigerians have access to sustainable and safely managed WASH services by 2030, in compliance with the SDGs for water (Goal 6.1) and sanitation (Goal 6.2).
The $700m, six-year programme is being implemented in the seven states of Delta, Ekiti, Gombe, Imo, Kaduna, Katsina and Plateau. It is projected to provide six million people with basic drinking water and 1.4 million people with access to improved sanitation services; while taking WASH services to 2,000 schools and health care facilities and assisting 500 communities to achieve open defecation-free status.
Prof Utsev explained that the SURWASH Programme was designed by the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation in partnership with the World Bank to support the implementation of the National WASH Action Plan (NAP) launched in November 2018.
He said, “Through SURWASH, the Federal Government would make infrastructure investments and drive reforms in the five National WASH Action Plan areas of governance, sustainability, sanitation, funding & financing and monitoring & evaluation that serve as our Government’s overall strategy and vehicle for investment and sector reforms.
“In the second year of the program, the implementing States achieved modest results in the preparation of the Policies, Institutions and Reforms (PIR) and implemented annual performance activities under the Performance Improvement Action Plan (PIAPs) that will enable the sustainability of the programme. Disbursements have been made accordingly to the States for the achieved results.”
According to him, the purpose of the 3rd FSC meeting with the seven states was to review and approve their 2024 Programme Work plan for a smooth implementation of the SURWASH programme, in the various states.
He said, “However it is very important for the states to adequately support this programme at state level by providing adequate funding for their states to enable them take advantage of this opportunity considering it is a Programme-for-Results initiative.
“This improved funding will enable us achieve the activities set in this Work plan and we should also consider scaling up our activities that will lead to improved disbursements by the end of the 2024 Programme year and hence the rating of the Programme.
“It is important to inform the committee that we are below the annual disbursements in the previous years, therefore there is a need for participating States to be proactive and committed to the program.”
