NAN-AE-7
Sanitation
By Victor Adeoti
Ijebu-Ijesa (Osun), Jan. 22, 2017 (NAN) Alhaji Posi Adiatu, General Manager, Osun Rural Water and Environmental Sanitation Agency (RUWESA), says the citizens’ access to potable water and basic sanitation in Nigeria is below the required standard.
Adiatu said this on Monday at a workshop on “Finalisation of Osun Water Sanitation and Hygiene Monitoring and Evaluation Framework’’, which was organised by UNICEF in Ijebu-Ijesa.
He said that available statistics had confirmed that the country had yet to meet the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) targets of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Adiatu said that in spite of the efforts and vast investments at all levels of government and the input of donor agencies in the WASH sector; many citizens still lacked access to potable water and basic sanitation.
He said that the available statistics revealed that more than 130 million Nigerians did not have access to adequate sanitation in the country.
Adiatu said that the statistics also indicated that more than 60,000 under-five children died every year due to diarrhoeal infections caused by poor water and sanitation.
He underscored the need for the government to give more attention to people in the rural areas by assisting them to have improved access to safe water and sanitation facilities like the residents of urban areas.
He said the workshop was organised to facilitate wider consultation and input of stakeholders for the finalisation of the WASH policy of Osun.
In his remarks, Mr Babatunde Ibirogba, the Special Adviser on Water Resources to Gov. Rauf Aregbesola of Osun, said that the state had adopted a reform agenda for the provision of potable water and improved sanitation.
He said one of the six-point development agenda of the state government was the provision of potable water and sanitation facilities to reduce the menace of water and sanitation-related diseases.
“In achieving this, particularly for improved WASH services, the place of monitoring and evaluation in the sector and updated WASH policy in the programme implementation cannot be overemphasised,’’ he added. (NAN)
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Edited by Tola Okinbaloye and Dayo Komolafe