eWASH

“Access to WASH’’ stakeholders’ forum, holds on Thursday, May 23, 2013 Seminar Room, First floor, Archbishop Vinning Memorial Anglican Church, Opposite Police College, Ikeja, Lagos

The Coordinating Committee of the  Rural Water and Sanitation Initiative (RWSSI) was launched in Tunis, Tunisia last week.

RWSSI is a continental framework for resource mobilisation, investment, and development of rural water supply and sanitation in Africa; while the Coordinating Committee for the RWSSI is expected to facilitate improved coordination and sector learning among partners  and stakeholders towards the achievement of RWSSI’s goals and targets.

Below are photos from the launch:

Some of the participants at the meeting

Participants at the meeting

Samuel Ome, Director, Water quality control and Sanitation/Chairman National Task Group on Sanitation, Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Nigeria discussing with Mr Sering Jallow, Director Water and Sanitation, AfDB

Group photograph of African Water and Sanitation experts that attended the meeting

Mr Sering Jallow, Director Water and Sanitation Department, African Development Bank (AfDB), (left); Hon Christian Herbert, Deputy Minister for Rural Development and Community Services, Liberia and Mr Bai Mass Tall, Executive Secretary of African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW)

Hon Christian Herbert, Deputy Minister for Rural Development and Community Services, Liberia (left) and Mr Bai Mass Tall, Executive Secretary of African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW)

WaterAid (http://www.wateraid.org)  has called on the Nigerian government to support the ambitious target of providing access to water, sanitation and hygiene for all Africans by 2030.

The call comes as hundreds of Nigerians took part in a Walk for Water to mark in Abuja yesterday to mark this year’s World Water Day

According to Nelson Gomonda, WaterAid Pan-Africa Programme Manager said: “330 million Africans today live without access to clean water, so the road to travel is long, but we can for the first time see the end in sight.  With more than 1,000 African children under the age of five dying every day from diseases brought about from a lack of water and sanitation, Africans will not accept failure. We have to reach this target.”

Currently in Sub-Sahara Africa, 334 million people (39% of the population) lack access to clean drinking water, while under 600 million (70%) lack access to sanitation(5).

 To tackle this problem now, WaterAid is calling on international leaders to:

1.         Recognise the need for the framework that replaces the Millennium Development Goals in 2015 to reflect the contribution of water, sanitation and hygiene to other areas of poverty reduction, including health, education, gender equality, economic growth and sustainability.

2.         For the UN to set a new global target to achieve universal access to water, sanitation and hygiene by 2030.

3.         Identify ways of accelerating future rates of progress on sanitation if the goal of universal access is to be met by 2030.

World Water Day Press statement

The Water and Sanitation Media Network, a coalition of Journalists reporting water and sanitation issues in Nigeria have called on the Federal Government to accelerate access to safe drinking water and sanitation services in Nigeria by fulfilling the commitments it made at high level meetings to leverage additional financing to develop Nigeria’s water and sanitation sector.

In a statement released to mark the World Water Day, March 22, the Water and Sanitation Media Network notes with regret that the Federal Government has failed to fulfill none of the twenty six commitments it made at the high level meetings.

’Nigeria has not fully achieved any of the twenty six WASH commitments, it voluntarily made in several high level meetings between 2000 and 2012. These commitments made at four high level meetings between 2000-2012: the World summit in Johannesburg 2000, United Nations Assembly, New York in 2010, African Sanitation and Hygiene conference, eThekwini in 2011, and the Sanitation and Water for All meeting in Washington, in 2012; but none of them have been fulfilled so far by the Nigerian Government” said the Water and Sanitation Media Network

The body says ‘this explains why 35 million Nigerians still defecate in the open, about 90 million are without access to safe drinking water, and 130,000 under five Nigerian children die annually from preventable water borne disease”.

Some of these unfulfilled commitments include:

1.  Harmonisaiton of water and sanitation policies;
2. Promoting WASH in Schools;
3. Intensify increasing water and sanitation budgets by 15%;
4. Ensuring  at least 0.5% of the Gross Domestic Product to promoting sanitation and hygiene;  
5. Declaring access to water and sanitation a human right;
6. Encouraging State and Local Governments to  create budget lines for sanitation;
7. Scaling up Community Led Total Sanitation in the 36 states.
8.   Increasing national access to improved sanitation to 65% by 2015; and
9. Increasing national  access to improved water by at least 5%  by 2014.

The body therefore called on the Federal Government in Nigeria to keep its promises and initiate practical policies, programmes and projects to develop the country’s WASH sector, and improve access to WASH services.

As the World marks World Water Day, the Water and Sanitation Media Network notes that “Access to improved water and sanitation still remains a major challenge in Nigeria. Water and Sanitation coverage in Nigeria are amongst the lowest in the world.  According to the 2008 report of the WHO/UNICEF JMP Joint Monitoring Programme, Nigeria is in the bottom 25 countries worldwide in terms of water and sanitation coverage. At current rates of progress Nigeria is predicted to meet the water MDG target in 27 years but may not meet the sanitation MDG target for 124 years.

The Nigerian Government MDG national targets are 82% for water and 65% for sanitation. Estimates of the investment in water supply and sanitation required to meet these MDG based targets range from US$2.5 billion (MDG Office) to US$4 billion annually (US$1.7 billion for water supply and US$2.3 billion for sanitation—CSO2 costing). Out of the calculated US$2.5 billion annual investment required to meet the MDG targets, only about $550 million is being injected by the Nigerian Government due to limited resources and competing needs, leaving a huge investment gap to achieve these targets

On the occasion of the 2013 World Water Day celebration March 22, the Water and Sanitation Media Network urges the Nigerian Government to stop ‘talking the talk’ but  start ‘walking the talk’, because ’33 million people are without toilets, over 868,000 Nigerian children die each year, about a quarter of which are from water related and vaccine preventable diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhea, meningitis and measles; and according to a UNDP report Nigeria may not achieve the MDG water target before 2046 and that of sanitation by 2076.’

As part of activities planned to mark this year’s World Water Day, WaterAid Nigeria, Federal Ministry of Water Resources and other members of the End Water Poverty (EWP) and the Keep Your Promises Campaign in Nigeria are joining thousands of people across the world to organise a ‘World Walk for Water & Sanitation’ on Thursday 21 March 2013 at 7.00am.

The symbolic walk is being held in solidarity with the millions who struggle to access clean water and basic sanitation daily. The route for the walk will be from the UNESCO Headquarters (NCCE building near the Federal Secretariat) in Central Area to the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) premises in Area 11.

WaterAid Nigeria is collaborating with Federal Ministry of Water Resources and partnering with groups such as the Water and Sanitation Media Network, the Youth WASH Network to call for urgent action to tackle Nigeria’s water and sanitation crisis.

About 500 or more people comprising youths, persons living with disabilities, Youth Corpers, Civil Society Groups, journalists, Civil Servants, are expected to participate in the ‘Walk for Water’

As part of the event, people will be called upon to sign a petition calling on the Nigerian government to keep their promises on leveraging financial resources to develop the water and sanitation sector.

A round table discussion and exhibition on World Water Day will also hold at the International Conference Centre, this Friday by 10am.

World Water Day is celebrated annually to focus attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. This year’s event is dedicated to the theme of cooperation around water.

Around 100 participants, representing 50 different organizations around Nigeria, attended the General Assembly of Partners of the Country Water Partnership of Nigeria held on 14 February 2013,  where Nigeria’s  Minister of Water Resources Mrs. Sarah Reng Ochekpe,  urged Global Water Partnership (GWP) Nigeria to strengthen and expand their activities towards achieving adequate management of water resource in the country.

Efforts to improve access to safe drinking water supply and sanitation services for Africa’s rural communities will be given a fillip next week, when the African Development Bank (AFDB) launches a new initiative to facilitate improved coordination and sector learning among partners and Stakeholders towards the achievement of the Bank’s Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative (RWSSI).

Access to water supply and sanitation in rural areas in Africa is 54% and 30.7%, respectively as of 2010, but these figures are far below the MDG targets of 70% for water supply, and 62% for sanitation. Only about 16 countries in Africa are on target to meet the MDGs for water while less than 10 are likely to meet the sanitation targets.

The AFDB event called the ‘Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative’s  Regional Coordination Committee (RCC)’, will hold on March 26 and 27 at the Tunis head quarters of the Bank.

A statement by the AFDB says the launch will be attended by 150 – 200 experts representing all countries in Africa, as well as RWSSI stakeholders.

The Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative (RWSSI), a joint programme coordinated by the AfDB but financed by many donors, other partners and Regional Member Countries (RMCs), was first launched in 2003 by the African Development Bank with an overall goal of achieving universal access to water supply and sanitation services for the rural populations by 2025 with an intermediate target of 80% coverage by 2015 in a sustainable way.

The Initiative seeks to help mobilize as well as facilitate the flow of available and potential resources to accelerate investment in Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (RWSS) in Africa, with goal to reach 80 percent coverage by the year 2015. The Initiative supports the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the reduction of poverty.

RWSSI was adopted in 2005 by AfDB’s main international development partners and African governments as a common framework, at the first International Conference on the RWSSI held in Paris April 1st, 2005.

The focus areas of the RWSSI include water supply, sanitation, hygiene, sector policy and strategy, capacity building and funds mobilization for Rural Water Supply and Sanitation sub-sector; and the Initiative targets about 280 million people living in rural Africa with access to new and rehabilitated water supply and sanitation (WSS) facilities.

According to an Internal Assessment of the AfDB’s water supply and sanitation initiative, “28 RWSS programs in 22 African countries have been approved, of which 16 have started to deliver water and provide sanitation services. The additional people served with access to water supply through the RWSS program rose from 1.15 million people at the end of 2007, to 32.63 million people at the end of 2010, while for sanitation it increased from 0.58 million to 20.09 million people, over the same period”

The overall objective of next week’s meeting in Tunis is to launch the platform that will facilitate improved coordination and sector learning among Partners and Stakeholders towards the achievement of RWSSI’s goals and targets.

The specific objectives of the meeting are: appraising stakeholders on RWSSI progress, achievements, challenges and plans leading to 2015. This will also include a discussion on some of the key issues affecting sector progress (sector monitoring and performance reporting; sub-sector financing; sustainability; sector coordination) and how Africa should address them; sharing country and field experiences in co-ordination to inform the way forward for RWSSI;  obtaining partner and stakeholder inputs towards identifying opportunities and addressing co-ordination challenges to achieve Africa’s rural water supply and sanitation targets; reviewing the draft terms of reference and membership of the RCC, and proposing undertakings for the first year (including modalities for their achievement); and, launching the RCC.

The meeting is expected to result in an enhanced understanding of the role, impact and contribution of RWSSI towards the achievement of Africa’s water and sanitation targets in rural and small town communities; greater awareness of key issues affecting sector progress and that are central to the mandate of the RCC.

These include sector performance monitoring and reporting, resource mobilization and sustainability of rural water supply and sanitation services, national level coordination, etc. climate change and adaptation, and how the RWSSI and the region is/should be addressing them;  and a better understanding of the need for co-ordination and a commitment to enhance this at regional and national levels.

 Bauchi State Water Board (BSWB) with the support of USAID/Sustainable Water and Sanitation in Africa (SUWASA)  has conducted a customer database eneumeration exercise that has discovered 23,000 customers not listed  in the utility’s record for Bauchi town.

The exercise has revealed that the number of illegal connections is far much more than the registered ones and as such BSWB is not collecting payments for the service it delivers to most consumers.

Almost 40,000 customers were enumerated under the customer database enumeration exercise in Bauchi town, as against 17,000 in the utility’s records.

The General Manager of the Water Board Engineer Aminu Aliyu Gital says, ” the customer database ‘will eventually enable the Board to be autonomous, and ease the financial burden of the state government. The Water Board’s billing efficiency has been extremely low because most customers in its old database could not be reached or identified, so bills produced were wasted. But with the new database, bills will be produced more accurately and delivered to the precise locations of their owners, making follow-up easier”

The coding system – uses the satellite imagery of the town,  a specially designed enumeration form and a computer program developed in Microsoft Access. This is particularly suited to Bauchi municipalities, where houses are not numbered and most streets are not officially named.

According to Engineer Aminu Aliyu Gital, the data from this exercise is also expected to assist in the planning for future expansion of the pipe network so as to reach more residents in the State’s urban areas and will facilitate specific queries targeted at addressing particular requirements essential for planning:

“With an updated customer database, the Water Board will increase its revenue, regularize illegal connections, and ultimately, achieve autonomy in delivering sustainable services.The exercise is significant at this stage of transition of the Water Board from a public utility that is fully dependent on government subsidy for its capital and operational costs, to a corporation that has full autonomy, and operates based on commercial principles.BSWB staff will be trained on how to carry out the exercise to ensure an enduring system of updating the customer database is firmly in place.”

WaterAid Nigeria has launched a new website accessible at www.wateraid.org/nigeria and featuring improved design and greater integration with social media channels.

Speaking on the new platform, Michael Ojo, Country Representative for WaterAid Nigeria, says the  ‘new website is a communications channel through which we will share news, views, interviews from the field, stories about our work, information on events and we hope that it will also be a space through which we can engage you in the fight to end the WASH crisis in Nigeria’