By Ajibola Adedoye
WaterAid Nigeria with support from Microsoft Inc. has rolled out a new initiative aiming at perfecting access to sustainable Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services in the Peri Urban area of Lagos State.
The intervention programme named Lagos Peri-urban Water and Sanitation Improvement Project will be enforced through adding access to water force and sanitation services and strengthening mechanisms that promote community preparedness for water-related shocks and stresses that arise from the goods of climate change.
Also Read
In her comment, Evelyne Mere, Country Director for WaterAid Nigeria said, “The three- year project is set to reach nothing lower than 21,475 people with access to sustainable, flexible, and affordable Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services in Ikorodu North LCDA”.
The Country Director, represented by Dr. Adebayo Alao, said “WaterAid reiterates its married cooperation with Lagos State and all applicable stakeholders. We look forward to the successful perpetration of the design and the sustainability of the rehabilitated installations. We hope that the governments at both situations will borrow these models for upscaling and replication across the evolving municipality of Lagos until everyone, far and wide have access to sustainable WASH services.”
According to her,” Lagos State which is among the most vibrant metropolises in Africa, with an estimated population of 22 million people. Like numerous other metropolises in sub-Saharan Africa, it struggles to manage rapid population growth and urban development, including furnishing access to essential services like Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH), hence the need for the intervention programme” she maintained.
Speaking further, Mere noted that” WaterAid in collaboration with the government and Civil Society Associations will be enforcing this design with emphasis on recuperation ofnon-functional water and handwashing installations, upgrade of sanitation installations to be gender inclusive; one that addresses the requirements of women girls and persons with disabilities, and creation of good hygiene that supports healthy living.
“The Peri Urban Water and Sanitation Improvement design will leverage our ongoing Clean Family crusade in the state to promote and ameliorate targeted hygiene behaviours in communities to ameliorate health issues and check the spread of contagious conditions by establishing strengthening Environmental Health Clubs (EHCs) in seminaries and constituting Volunteer Hygiene Promoters (VHPs) who will become champions of hygiene behaviour change” she stated.
In his reflections, Godfrey Iloha, WASH Manager (Microsoft Project) said to achieve the target, four communities including Omigun, Arobiona, Irepodun- Ayegbami and Agbede Olosugbo as well as Farm Settlement Primary School in Odogunyan, all in Ikorodu North LCDA will benefit from the intervention programme.
According to Iloha,” The design has three objects which is perfecting access to water and sanitation, adding education and awareness on hygiene as well as strengthening governance systems.
“For everything that WaterAid does, it’s about sustainability, WaterAid alone can not achieve the enormity of access gap in the state. We need to work with the state government, who has the ultimate responsibility to give water and access whatever we do is some kind of a model for them to be suitable to take off and also sustain them. So, all that we do is we bring in stakeholders from original from the community and at the state position” he sumbitted.
The 2021 Water, Sanitation and Hygiene National Outcome Routine Mapping (WASHNORM) Survey shows that 45% of people in Lagos lack access to safely managed water, 75% lack access to safely managed sanitation and 65% do not have access to hygiene services while 34% drink water defiled with E. coli.
In recent years, as the climate crisis has come more severe, there has also been a major swell in the number of cholera outbreaks across the world including Lagos State.
Findings from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Cholera Situation Report Monthly Epidemiological Report 15 Epi week 32: (5 August 2024 – 11 August 2024) show that Lagos reckoned for 63% (3,758 cases) of all suspected cases in the country of the 36 countries that have reported cases.
Disease outbreaks similar as this continue to punctuate the significance of access to acceptable water, sanitation, and hygiene services and more so, that the provision of marshland architectures is climate flexible.
Dignitaries that graced the occasion includes Engr. Adisa Yinusa, Director of Water Resources in the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, Mr. Fadunsin Babatunde (Deputy Director WASH) from the Ministry of Original Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Prince Prince Adeniran Ogunbanwo, WASHCOM Coordinator and Chairman CDC, Ikorodu North, CDA Chairmen from the serving communities in the LCDA among others.
For your Press Conferences/ Adverts/Media Consultancy/Support
Contact the Editor via WhatsApp +2349097600508/+2348032339384 or Email: news@dailyinsight.com.ng & shinaayo110@gmail.com