The Ogun State Government has declared a State of Emergency in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, WASH.
He has also officially declared a war agains open defecation in the State.
The State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, made the declarations in Abeokuta, Friday, when he received the report of a Steering Committee for the Implementation of the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Programme, WASH.
The Governor, who said the water and sanitation sector must be adequately attended to at the urban and sub-urban levels, added that rural water supply and sanitation needs and aspirations of residents would be prioritised in line with Goal Six of the Sustainable development Goals, SDGs.
Theme: Providing Sustainable Universal Water Supply and Hygiene Sanitation by 2030.
Safe drinking water, good hygiene and sanitation are fundamental to health, sector and economic well being of our citizens. Access to these basic necessities, is still a challenge among greater percentage of our population in Ogun State, who resides within the spectrum of urban, small towns and rural areas of the State.
The consequences of lack of access is an indirect drain on our socio-economic activities and severe drawback on the health of our people, which comes in the form of water borne diseases resulting in diarrhea, dysentery and cholera, claiming lives even among the under 5 children. Furthermore, the lack of access to clean running water has been linked directly as a potential source in the spread of ravaging covid-19 pandemic.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for WASH commits government to fulfill the aspiration of citizens with the defined “Leave No One Behind” principle in the delivery of basic services such as Water Supply and Sanitation. In particular, SDG Goals 6 requires by 2030:
• That universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all must be achieved.
• Access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all, even Open Defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those invulnerable situations are achieved.
As we are all aware, sometimes in November 2018, His Excellency, President Mohammed Buhari GCON declared a State of Emergency in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector in Nigeria. This declaration is in line with the report of Nigeria WASH Poverty Diagnostic (2007) which indicates that 61% of Nigerians have access to improved water, from which only 31% have improved water in their premises.
It is noteworthy to stress, that Nigeria’s WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) services is regressing, where access to piped water service fell from 32% in 1990, to less than 7% in 2015, while the access to improved sanitation has also decreased from 38% in 1990 to 29% in 2015. Hence, Federal Government declaration of a State of Emergency in the Water sector as emphasized above.
In Ogun State today, the residents are going through very serious and indicative “Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Crises”. Only 14.9% of residents had access to clean water supply through public utilities, while the access to improved sanitation service is about 35%, with the level of open defecation still high as 22% particularly in the rural areas.
CHALLENGES BEFORE US:
Ogun State is the nation’s industrial hub, borders the commercial nerve of Lagos which is Africa’s 4th economic city in terms of GDP. Giving its proximity to Lagos, the State population currently is over 7 million with an annual population growth rate of 3% about two-thirds of its citizens live largely in informal settlement and semi-rural communities.
The State’s capital is Abeokuta and other major cities including Ijebu-Ode, Sagamu, Ilaro are mainly fast becoming commercial centres, bustling with commercial activities with attendant growing population. Major Town of Ota, an industrial town is grossly underserved right now with low portable water supply and sanitation; existing coverage is below 15% of the population. These aforementioned densely populated, rapidly growing, urban and peri-urban settlements pose unique challenges for water supply and sanitation service in the State. In many rural communities, their drinking water is brownish and with heavy taste. Open Defecation is still a major problem in the State an many of our public schools including health institutions do not either have toilet facilities or that they are in deplorable conditions hence, when people could not access the conveniences, resorting to defecation. This pose a major challenge to us all at the basic level, we cannot continue business as usual.
The statistics are staggering about 116 million out of approximately 200 million Nigerian citizens do not have access to decent toilet and this hassled to 38.8 million of them indulging in open Defecation, Some 50 % of Health Care Facilities lack clean water and 88% of them lack basic sanitation. And, yearly, 60,000 children die before they start school from disease caused by poor levels of access to WASH.
The statistics on open defecation, access to piped water service and sanitation in the State is disturbing, henceforth; the State government will support Local Government on their commitment to implementing the state Road Map of Attainment of ODF status by 2025.
Thousands of Nigerians are still dying of the preventable diseases imply because we fail to adhere strictly to environmental sanitation and hygiene. It is very disheartening that many homes are still without toilet facilities even in urban centres. Portable water is scarce in many communities as people had to go several miles in search of water for domestic use. There have been reported cases of people sharing stream water with animals. Pure and potable water is supposed to be tasteless, odourless and colourless.
Others include but not limited to:
1. The State have a demand gap estimated at 480 MLD and a capacity deficit of 180 MLD.
2. About 8 out of every 10 persons living in Ogun State’s population of over 7 million do not have access to water from the public utilities.
3. Newly development areas and emerging town are totally without water pipelines
4. Open defecation still observed even in some parts of urban areas e.g Oke Aregba
5. Sustainability of existing water schemes is marred by poor budgetary performance to support the O&M (Operations and Maintenance)
6. Inadequate waterworks/schemes for portable water supply in the State to support the growing population.
7. Absence of reliable hydrological and meteorological data for the purpose of water supply, weather and flood forecasting
8. Absence of regulatory and institutional framework for Ogun State Water sector.
OUR COMMITMENT TO REFORMS IN THE WATER SECTOR:
Ogun State have made progress in recent times, as series of measures including short, medium and long term were taken by present administration to actualize WASH objectives towards service delivery in our dear State.
The State in the long – term plan, was first amongst 2 States of the federation to pilot implementation of the Partnership for Expanded Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (PEWASH) Programme through prompt signing of protocol. This partnership is working as Federal Ministry of Water Resources had executed water supply projects via rehabilitation and construction of solar powered boreholes in 94 locations across rural communities in four LGAs of Obafemi-Owode, Ikenne, Ijebu-North and Ogun Waterside. This effort had since been progressively matched up through approval and releases of fund to execute counterpart projects in another 4 LGAs to include Odeda, Yewa-North, Ado-Odo/Ota and Ipokia. The establishment of OGWAMMA to manage the affairs of our solid waste and feacal sludge, particularly in our urban and small towns is the right approach by Ogun State Government.
Furthermore, the government has commenced a developmental agenda and strategy to ensure efficiencies of operation committing to the rehabilitation of infrastructures, infuse professionals in the sector, modernize value chain operations, set key performance indicators (KPIs) and create enabling legal and regulatory framework for Public Private Partnerships to thrive particularly for enhanced revenue generation drive. The listed initiatives will ensure Ogun State residents have access to water supply on an incremental basis and ensure production and distribution sustainability through strategic approach for effective cost recovery.
The State Government shall continue to invest significantly through effective partnerships with development partners, Federal Ministry of Water Resources (FMWR), UNICEF, World Bank amongst others. Before now, UNICEF has been a pillar of support to us and most recently is the Federal Ministry of Water Resources for their unflinching support towards strengthening of the water institutions at the State and Local Government levels through capacity building and logistic support.
Nigeria has subscribed to the UN SDGs, Ogun State cannot be left behind. Ogun State sees this as an opportunity to reform the system and the structure to make them nimble and appropriate for high performance to achieve universal access to portable water and sanitation services in the State. However, Ogun State continues to record high population growth, rural to urban migration, high birth rates and rapid shift of population into the city from the rest of Nigeria and beyond, aggravating the gaps in water supply and sanitation daily.
It is therefore my considered plan of action as the Governor of the State, giving several challenges the water sector posed to our dear State and our strong commitment address lingering issues in the sector. I hereby DECLARE a “STATE OF EMERGENCY” in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and the official flag off of Open Defecation in Ogun State.
We now subscribe to the implementation of the National WASH Action Plan in order to reverse the regressing trend through ensuring access to safe drinking water and ending of Open Defecation.
This declaration in Ogun State shall signal a high level political will within the State to provide a focused attention, governance structure and appropriate budgetary provision to deliver on SDG 6 to providing sustainable, equitable and reliable drinking water as well as improved sanitation services, to the good people of Ogun State.
Giving above declaration, the following structure shall be put in place with immediate effect:
1. The setting up of Steering Committee for the implementation of National WASH Programme.
2. A WASH focused representative (i.e. voice for WASH) at the Ogun State Cabinet, the highest level of decision making in the State.
3. RE-position the water and sanitation sector in order to adequately address urban, sub-urban and rural water supply and sanitation needs and aspiration of Ogun State residents in line with goal 6 of SDG.
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