eWASH

By Babatope Babalobi assisted by Njideka Onwunyi

Bread of Life Development Foundation through its eWASH blog is today starting a media advocacy project to draw local and international attention to the deplorable living conditions, particularly poor access to safe water and sanitation services in  Makoko (coordinates: Latitude : 6.496. Longitude : 3.388.), a slum in Lagos state, Nigeria.

Tagged ‘Voicing out for Makoko’ we shall through this project be working with members of the community to highlight their WASH challenges, hoping that this will trigger action by service providers, policy formulators, and regulators as well as charity groups.

Makoko is a fishing community situated on the Lagos, lagoon, in Yaba Local Government Area in Lagos State, Nigeria, whose distinguishing feature is that it is built on water- the Lagos lagoon.. For a community whose population are over a million, there are no single public primary or secondary school, no public health centre, and public water supply mains is at a distance.But its population is a guess work as it was never covered by past official population censuses.

Space is a luxury in Makoko The community is hugely congested and overcrowded with up to 20 persons live in  ‘houses’ constructed with planks and bamboos floating over the Lagos lagoon.. The children in Makoko do not have to lament over unreliable power supply, nor shout ‘Up NEPA’ when public energy supply is restored by Nigeria’s erratic energy firm that used to be known as ‘NEPA’, an acronym for National Electric Power Corporation because the community is not connected to the National grid. It is enveloped by pit darkness at night.

Suspended on the Lagos lagoon, the water underneath the ramshackle houses, serves as the urinal, toilet, waste dump, foot path, road, swimming pool, playground, drainage, and floating market for the residents leaving the surface water with a thick, black, noxious smell. Moreover, Makoko has no access roads, and being built on water, canoe is the only means of transportation.

Nairobi, Kenya’s capital is globally known for its Kibera slum, and the visibility given to its deplorable condition has resulted in several local and international interventions to develop its infrastructures. Makoko’s sub human and debilitating conditions is perhaps worst than Kibera, yet Government may not be willing to provide services there because of its squatter status and private service providers are not willing to intervene there because it is not profitable.

In Africa’s religious society, the people are therefore left to the mercy of God of which on its messengers- the Redeemed Christian Church of God has played a yeoman’s role in providing WASH services. Bread of Life Development Foundation is hoping that the  ‘Voicing out for Makoko’ project will translate to  WASH projects by development partners, charities and government bodies that will improve the livelihoods of the residents.

For the next six months, we shall be posting on eWASH real life stories on the harsh realities of life in Makoko, with specific focus on lack of access to water, sanitation and hygiene services; and also support the community members to initiative self help projects as well as engage with government duty bearers to ensure provision of safe water and sanitation services.

On Tuesday, March 13, 2012 the World Water Forum had organised a “Water Debate” on “Private/Public involvement in the provision of water and sanitation services”. Panelists were: AquaFed member Mamadou Dia (Chief executive of Sénégalaise des Eaux – www.sde.sn, AquaFed’s president Gérard Payen, Maria Theresa N.Lauron (IBON, a Philipino NGO) and David Boys (Public Services international).

Bread of life Development Foundation with the support of Department of Climate Change of the Federal Ministry of Environment, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and Government of Japan organised a High Level Panel Discussion on Climate Change, and Water supply and Sanitation, yesterday in Lagos Nigeria.

The event was attended by 21 representatives of stakeholders institutions including Professor Lekan Oyebande Chair Technical Committee West Africa Water Partnership, Mr Jones Awolowo of the Lagos Water Corporation,  Engr. Adeyemo Adegoke of Lagos wastewater management office, Nornah  Awoh of the Lagos State Ministry of Environment,  Engr. Sanni Anibire of the  Department of Rural Ware Supply and Sanitation -Lagos state Ministry of Rural Development, Abiola-Awe of the Federal Ministry of Environment, and Prince  Lekan Fadina of the CISME. The media and civil society organisations were also represented.

Discussions centred on the following issues:

1. Potential impacts of climate change on service providers in Lagos state- Water Supply/Sanitation, Urban/Rural, Public/Private
2. Potential impacts of climate change on consumers in Lagos state -Household/Industrial
3. Adaptive capacity of service providers and consumers to climate change in Lagos state
4. Recommendations for Mitigation and Adaptation-Service providers/Consumers

Babatope Babalobi of the Bread of Life Development Foundation made a presentation on ‘Impacts of climate change on water supply and sanitation in Nigeria.’ Professor Lekan Oyebande submitted a discussion paper. Two Non governmental organisations- Centre for 21st Century Issues and Gender Environment and Climate Action Network (GECAN) submitted working papers.

At the end of the deliberations, participants agreed on the following resolutions:

1. There is a need to increase stakeholder’s education and create awareness on the potential impacts of climate change on service providers and users in the water supply and sanitation sector in Lagos  state.
2. There is a need to conduct baseline studies to generate data and information on status of water supply and sanitation sector; and this should be updated regularly.  This will serve as a basis for measuring/determining climate change impacts.
3. Households and commercial offices should be encouraged too promote environmental greening and reduce pavement of the neighbourhood in order to encourage natural groundwater recharge.
4. The high rate of salinisation of groundwater in Lagos has adverse effect on access to water. It also increases the cost of access. This need to be investigated further.
5.  Substantial percentage of the Lagos state residents access supplies through small scale private providers and self service. Their experiences need to be captured into the present study.
6. There is a high rate of proliferation of boreholes leading to over abstraction and over extraction of water supplies in the state. Water demand management should be promoted and communal boreholes should be encouraged especially in estates.
7. On site wastewater treatment should be promoted.
8. There should be increase synergy between the government agencies, CSO, and consumers to tackle climate change.
9.  Basin approach should be adopted to investigate the potential impacts of climate change on service providers.
10.  The draft Lagos State Water supply and Sanitations should be climate change sensitive. 
11. Institutional guidelines and strategy papers should be reviewed to mainstream climate change issues.
12. Water Supply and Sanitation governance structures i.e Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Committees (WASHCOMs) should be set up in all communities in the state. This should be used a platform to disseminate climate change information to rural communities.
13. Water supply and sanitation agencies in the state should promote appropriate WSS technologies that at climate resilient e.g. Rain harvesting and Household water treatment.
14. Development of water safety plans by service providers to respond/prevent to possible contamination should be encouraged in the state.
15. Prioritisation of the WSS sector in national planning is critical to building adaptive capacity and this should be complemented by increased funding for the WSS sector.
16. Lagos state government is encouraged to develop a technology for treating/desalinisation  of the abundant sea water for domestic consumption in the future.
17. The difference between climate change adaptation and adaptive capacity was stressed. The consultant was advised to investigate both the adaptive capacity of Water supply and sanitation sector and also recommend adaptation strategies.
18. Networks of climate change agents in the water supply and sanitation sector should be established in the state.
19. The private sector and Government should build symmetry to respond to climate change.
20. The National Water Resources Bill pending before the National Assembly should be reviewed to mainstream climate change issues.
21. An action plan and a timetable for the implementation of mitigation and adaptation measures in the water supply and sanitation sector in the state should be drawn and strictly followed.

The African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW) will launch The Strategic Framework for Water Security and Climate Resilient Development during the 4^th Africa Water Week, May 14-18, 2012, in Cairo, Egypt.

The Framework was developed by AMCOW to help senior professionals and decision-makers to identify and develop “no or low regret” investment strategies, to integrate these into planning processes, and to influence future development activities so they become more resilient to climate change and variability.

According to Mr Bai Mass Taal, AMCOW Executive Secretary, the Framework “has been formulated to support the implementation of climate change related commitments expressed by African heads of state in the 2008 Sharm el Sheikh declaration on water and sanitation. The Sharm el Sheikh Declaration in particular calls for African countries to put in place adaptation measures and investment plans to improve the resilience of countries to the increasing threat of climate change and variability to water resources, and enhance capacity to meet the water and sanitation targets.”

Mrs Rhoda Peace Tumusiime, Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture at the African Union Commission calls the Framework “a key milestone towards the attainment of the Africa Water Vision 2025 of equity and sustainability in the use and management of water resources for poverty alleviation, socio-economic development, regional cooperation, and the environment.

The Strategic Framework has been developed as part of the Water, Climate and Development Programme (WACDEP), an AMCOW programme implemented by Global Water Partnership (GWP). It has evolved through a strong collaborative relationship between AMCOW and its Technical Advisory Committee, GWP and the Climate Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) who funded the work.

More information: www.gwp.org/wacdep, www.amcow-online.org

Water news gets a platform thanks to Bread of Life.  

By Sarah Brown-Anson              

http://www.ecpeacejournalism.org/eWASH.html

A website aiming to shed light on water issues in Nigeria is headlining issues that are often neglected by traditional media outlets. eWASH, an online publication of the Bread of Life Development Foundation, publishes articles about water access and sanitation.

Bread of Life Foundation is a NGO incorporated in 2001 with the major objective to promote policies for sustainable human and environmental development. It’s a Christian organization, with secular and non-secular parts. eWASH, publishing at http://assemblyonline.info/, is written by a network of volunteers, as well as Babatope Babalobi, the editor, who follows water and sanitation policy closely.

Reached on his cell phone, Babalobi pointed to the role of journalists in raising awareness about water and sanitation access. Sanitation, which is available to less than half of Nigerians, is especially neglected in the media, according to Babalobi.

“The role we need to play (as journalists) is to ensure the media starts to write about sanitation issues,” he said. He said one motivation for his work was defending the poor, because “a lack of water supply and sanitation affects the poor most, and these poor do not have access to platforms of (media).”

But, he said, sanitation issues rarely make headlines in the media. “The tragedy is that nobody wants to talk about sanitation.” In its online publication, eWASH is working to reverse this. “We have been trying to highlight the risks and the costs of lack of access to improved sanitation,” Babalobi said. Those risks and costs include elevated maternal and child mortality rates. UNICEF estimates that 335,000 children die annually in Nigeria from water-borne diseases such as malaria, cholera, guinea worm, and diarrhea.

“We have been trying to publish stories and articles that highlight the poor sanitation and services that our people are (receiving) and tell the government that it’s not enough to provide water, they need to ensure that the sanitation component is there,” Babalobi said.

eWASH has also put out a call to their contributors to write about corruption in water infrastructure projects, with a cash prize to contributors of stories on that topic, but no one has responded yet. “People are cautious about exposing corruption.” Babalobi said.

In addition to publishing eWASH, Bread of Life carries out studies for multinational organizations like UNICEF and WaterAid and occasionally implements grant-funded projects related to access to water. They also coordinate the activities of West African Water and Sanitation Journalists Network.

Five or six years ago, the organization started a news blog to report on the activities of the Nigerian national assembly. “After some time, we focused on publishing exclusively stories on water supply and sanitation,” said Babalobi.

Babalobi has a journalism degree from University of Lagos. “That is why some of our programs are media-driven,” he said. He also completed a post-graduate degree on environmental management, which he said gave him “an opportunity to have a academic and theoretical background on some of the issues in the water sector.”

He said the online outlet was a strength, allowing them to post stories quickly. In the future, Babalobi said he hopes to make the site more interactive to get more of their readership, which reaches almost every area of Nigeria, involved.

Sarah Brown-Anson is a junior Comparative Languages and Linguistics major and journalism minor at Earlham College Ford/Knight Research project, Washington U.S.

In this write up, Dr Michael Ojo, the new Country Representative for WaterAid in Nigeria urges the ‘Presidency and the Finance Ministry to give WASH the priority and funding it requires and deserves’.

Two weeks ago, the eyes of the water, sanitation and hygiene sector all over the world were focussed on Washington D.C. as more than 100 Ministers and delegates from over 50 countries, critical to the achievement of global targets on water and sanitation, came together at the Sanitation and Water for All High Level Meeting (SWA-HLM).

I believe it’s fair to say that this is probably the most important coming together of world leaders, donors and developing countries in the sector. Under the auspices of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) these stakeholders discussed the water and sanitation crisis and what the response of countries lagging behind in providing adequate access for their populations should be.

Nigeria was there. We are one of the countries where this crisis is most critical. The statistics for Nigeria are frightening. In our country today, nearly 500 children under the age of 5 years die daily as a result of diarrhoea and other water related illnesses. Lack of access to water, sanitation and hygiene is now the biggest killer of children in modern day Nigeria, killing more children than AIDS, malaria and measles combined. This is not all. For the children that survive, the search for drinking water has blighted the lives of many.

Children and women bear the brunt of this lack of access. Many children miss out on school because they have to walk long distances and search large areas to source water for survival. Adults without access are drawn away from productive use of their time as they search for water instead. Without access to water, children and women are unable to ensure their health and hygiene and are unable to go to toilet and look after their menstrual hygiene in the comfort and privacy that many of us take for granted. Persons living with disabilities face even more additional difficulties.

Nigeria’s Millennium Development Goals (MDG) target is to supply 74% of the population with safe water by 2015 and 69% of the population with adequate sanitation.  Yet only 58% have water and 32% have sanitation meaning nearly 64 million people do not have access to safe drinking water with 103 not having access to sanitation.  At current rates of progress Nigeria will miss the water target by 18 years (2033) and is completely off track on its sanitation target, coverage having fallen from 37% in 1990 to 32% in 2008 (with the most current update showing even further decline to 31% for 2010).

Water is life!  Water and sanitation are essential for livelihoods!  As the popular Nigerian musician Fela Kuti sang, ‘Water has no enemy!’ It doesn’t take much to see how the availability or lack of water impacts on so many aspects of our lives. This was the key theme of the “Water Works” campaign that WaterAid in Nigeria has been running as part of a global effort to raise awareness and secure action from government and other agencies with responsibility for providing access to WASH services.

The key message of the “Water Works” campaign is that investment in taps and toilets is an investment in our children’s education, an investment in the nation’s health, and an investment in our economy. The cost to the Nigerian economy of poor sanitation is N455 billion annually or $3 billion per year. This represents a loss of 1.3% of national GDP. As you would expect, the highest proportion of this economic burden falls disproportionately on the poorest in our society.

To further get these messages across, WaterAid in Nigeria sponsored an art and essay competition among four state primary schools in Abuja as part of the activities to commemorate this year’s World Water Day. The children were tasked with painting a picture, writing an essay or penning a poem, depicting how water works for them. The winning entries and children were invited to an exhibition of their work when a compilation of the exhibits was presented to the Honourable Minister for Water Resources. Water Aid has been assured that this exhibit, representing the voice of Nigeria’s children – the demographic most heavily impacted by the crisis of lack of access to safe water and sanitation – will go to the SWA-HLM in Washington D.C. with the Nigerian delegation and be showcased.

More important than being showcased however, is the vital message that our children’s’ voices must be heard. And this brings me to the title of my piece.

One of the exhibits was a beautiful poem about the legend of Bayajidda. This ageless traditional folklore, like that of Wuthering Heights or Romeo and Juliet in the western world, has always been and continues to be taught in schools across Nigeria. Bayajidda was a prince who fled Baghdad and travelled across Africa with numerous warriors. He settled in Daura, a town in modern day northern Nigeria and it is here the story gets interesting from a WASH perspective. The people of Daura also suffered from a crisis of lack of access to safe water.

When Bayajidda arrived in Daura, he asked an old woman for water. She informed him that there was no water as they could only draw water from the well once a week when ‘Sarki’, the serpent guarding the well would allow them access. Bayajidda set out for the well where he killed and beheaded the serpent that had terrorised the people of the town and restricted their access to water. This feat ensured the people had daily access to the water in the well and for his heroics; Bayajidda bagged the hand of the local queen, Magajiya Daurama, in marriage.

Today’s ‘Sarki’ is the lack of investment in water and sanitation and the bottlenecks in the way of service delivery. The reward for today’s Bayajidda is more than half of a small kingdom or the hand of a queen in marriage. It is the life of the 275 children we could be saving in Nigeria every day by 2015 if we invest to reach our MDG targets on water and sanitation.

The Honourable Minister for Water Resources, Mrs Sarah Ochekpe has shown real leadership but the national budget for WASH is pitiful and falling – currently less than 0.1% of GDP and a far cry from the 0.5% the Government signed up to spending on sanitation alone as part of the eThekwini aspiration of 2008.

It is now time for the Presidency and the Finance Ministry to give WASH the priority and funding it requires and deserves. WaterAid will continue to push government alongside others who want to see an end to this WASH crisis in our lifetime. We will campaign to ensure that the Nigerian government keeps the commitments it made in Washington D.C.

We must make the investment required to secure the future of our children and secure the future of our nation. Our children are watching and waiting!

A high level Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) meeting opened this morning in Washighton, United States.

Todays’  Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) High Level Meeting brings together the SWA Partnership of donors and agencies with 69 ministers responsible for finance, sanitation and hygiene portfolios.

They will be meeting with the UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake, UK International Development Secretary of State Andrew Mitchell, Chair of the United Nations Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation HRH the Prince of Orange, and major donors and water and sanitation sector organizations, to discuss speeding up global access to water and sanitation.

The meeting is the second of its kind, and comes against the backdrop of an announcement in March from UNICEF and the World Health Organization that many still lack safe water, and that the target for improved sanitation is lagging far behind and will not be met at current rates of progress.
“Forty years ago exactly, in a triumph of science, engineering, and technology, Apollo 16 landed on the moon. It was the fifth mission to do so,” Lake says, “yet today, 1.1 billion people still practice open defecation because they lack the most basic sanitation facilities.” He continues: “If, two generations ago, we landed men on the moon, we can and we must afford people here on earth their most basic needs.”
His Excellency John Agyekum Kufuor, former president of Ghana and newly appointed chair of the SWA partnership, emphasizes the need for governments to act urgently.
“It is time to focus our energies on neglected areas and neglected people. The dream of universal access to sanitation and water is within our reach, but a tremendous increase in political will, adequate resources and coordinated efforts is required to get us there,” Kufuor says.

According to UNICEF, at least 2.5 billion cases of diarrhoea occur in children under five years of age every year, and an estimated 3,000 children die from it daily.

Organizers are hoping to build on the success of the first High Level Meeting in 2010, also convened by UNICEF at the World Bank, which led to increased focus and commitments from countries and donors. The 2012 meeting is greatly expanded, with 40 countries taking part, up from 18 in 2010.

Of those present in 2010, nine countries have confirmed that they are meeting their commitments of increased budget allocations; and seven of the 13 donors present in 2010 have met or exceeded the targets they set for funding. Countries have also reported improved coordination and accountability among different institutions and almost half the donors have increased alignment with national planning processes.

Developing Countries with Confirmed Ministerial Representation at the High Level Meeting are Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Conakry, Indonesia, Kenya, Lao PDR, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tanzania, Timor Leste, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Leading water and sanitation decision-makers from government, civil society, development partners, and donors are meeting today in Washington to seek a way forward on finding solutions to the world’s sanitation and water crisis.

The one day meeting tagged: ‘Sanitation and Water (SWA) for All High Level Meeting’, is convened by UNICEF and hosted by the World Bank and Water and Sanitation Program.

His Excellency John Agyekum Kufuor, former president of Ghana and newly appointed chair of the SWA partnership shares his view on the importance of the partnership and the High Level Meeting

As over Ministers of water resources prepare to converge in Washington for the Sanitation and Water for All High Level Meeting   April 20, WaterAid has released a new report that  predicted that at the current rate the Millennium Development Goal on sanitation will not be met in Nigeria and several other Sub-Saharan Africa countries until 2175, 160 years late.

Warning that the proportion of people with access to sanitation is actually falling in Nigeria, the report shows that  if  Nigeria government fails to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to halve the proportion of their population without sanitation by 2015 the lives of 100,000 children under the age of five will be at risk annual.

Titled: ‘Saving lives’, the report “there are more people in the world today without sanitation than there were in 1990”, and “the poor quality of sanitation and lack of access to safe drinking water causes 1.4 million child deaths every year, due to diarrhoea, and that these deaths are preventable”.

Presenting the report, the UK Chief Executive of WaterAid, Barbara Frost,said: “Governments could save the lives of 400,000 children by meeting their international commitment to invest in sanitation and to achieve this MDG.  If governments committed to universal access to safe water to drink and improved sanitation they could save 2.5 million lives every year.  It is unacceptable that 37% of the world’s population live without a toilet. The need for action is overwhelming.”

Later this week about 100 ministers and delegates from over 50 countries will meet in U.S. to discuss the water and sanitation crisis. Participating governments have to bring pledges to the table on increasing access to water and sanitation for the next two years; donor governments also have to provide commitments ahead of the meeting.

Speaking on the Sanitation and Water for All High Level Meeting, Frost said: “The Washington meeting is crucial to making real progress improving sanitation and water which are essential to saving children’s lives and to delivering social and economic development. Governments from both developing and donor countries must grasp this opportunity to act in response to the crisis of lost lives.”

Bauchi State in Northern Nigeria has developed a ‘Water and Sanitation Sector Overview’ to guide the state in implementing reforms in its water and sanitation sector towards achieving the Millennium Development Goal targets on water and sanitation, as well as an honest appraisal of the challenges to sustained progress towards these goals.

While identifying policy, institutional, legal and funding challenges, the report developed as part of the USAID supported water and sanitation reform project for the State, also outlines possible remedies.

A validation workshop earlier conducted prior to the finalization of the report, was attended by 57 participants who recommendations the strengthening of institutions and the formation of partnerships to help build the sector’s capacity for efficient delivery of services.

They also urged sectoral reforms that improve the water board’s ability to recover costs, through an autonomous but realistic tariff collection mechanism that helps pay for operational and maintenance expenses.

One in three Bauchi state residents had access to clean supply of water; just one in five is able to consistently access sanitation services. To achieve the MDG targets by 2015, the percentage of residents able to access a consistent supply of clean water must double; for sanitation, those numbers need to nearly triple.