ABOUT ten thousand residents from four communities in Bwari Area Council of the FCT have benefited access to clean water from the water intervention project of WaterAid Nigeria and its partners.
Mr Williams Kolo, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Coordinator, Bwari Area Council, disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja during a WaterAid Project Closed- Out meeting for a 14 months intervention project.
The meeting, tagged: Strengthening Water and Sanitation Delivery Project in Bwari Area Council, was organised by WaterAid Nigeria in collaboration with the FCT Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASSA).
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that other partners in the project included Bwari Area Council and funded by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Kolo, while presenting an overview of achieved outcomes of the project stated that 10, 000 residents now have access to clean water, WASH management skills and sanitation promotion messages.
“10, 000 people gained access to clean water, 647 people gained access to safely manage sanitation facilities, 3,500 people, including women and children, were reached with sanitation promotion messages.
ALSO READ:
Tinubu Subsidises Cost Of 2024 Hajj With N90bn – Shettima
Court Remands 5 For Allegedly Killing 42-Year-Old In Ibadan
Iran To Reform Working Week With Sunday As Start Emefiele
Pleads Not Guilty To Unlawful Printing Of Naira Notes, Gets N300m Bail
“The organisation constructed and rehabilitated 10, 000 litres and 20, 000 litres capacity solar/electric powered water boreholes in four communities and one school, including water kiosks.
“Also, 115 members comprised of 67 males and 48 females of WASH management structures and hygiene promoters were trained across the four beneficiary communities.
“It is also notable that this water points have been certified to have zero coliform level in the five water facilities procured in the four communities and school.”
The beneficiary communities, he listed, were Baran-goni, Zuma II, Sabon-Gari, Dakwa and LEA primary school, Tudun-fulani.
Kolo further said that in order to sustain and replicate the intervention, an investment plan had been mapped out by the partners, to help the council construct more of the infrastructure in other communities.
This, he added, was to ensure other communities in the council gain access to clean water, while assuring that the WASH unit would help ensure funds for such projects were included in the council’s subsequent budget.
Speaking with NAN on the progress of the project, Mr Nanpet Chuktu, Head of Programmes, WaterAid Nigeria said that the 14-month project was aimed to strengthen WASH delivery in selected communities in the council.
This, he further said was designed to complement the efforts of government in addressing access to WASH services, while improving hygiene behaviours and outcomes among target population.
The project, he added, focused on increasing access to WASH services by constructing and rehabilitating water facilities in the selected communities and providing gender-inclusive public sanitation facilities and participation.
He said: “Today’s meeting with partners and WASH committee representatives is to close out a one year mini project we currently have in the council.
“It is to show accountability and say we started this last year, this is what we promised and this is what we delivered.
“Bwari Area Council is still a work in progress, the council and RUWASSA are the key institutions we are supporting, and therefore, we are still on ground with similar projects.
“This is to first demonstrate a model they can use to improve the status of WASH in the communities and at the same time charge government to use the models to grow.
“We will like to see that by the next budget cycle, the council has dedicated funding for similar projects in other communities and not just rely on donor organisations.”
He also appraised the council’s inclusion of 40 per cent women to the WASH committee, while adding that their active participation was impressive.
One of the committee members, Mrs Safiya Rafiu from Baran-goni community, appreciated the effort by the partners while praying for God’s blessings on all who strived to put smiles on the faces of the people.
She said that the initiative had not only improved on sanitation in her community but had helped the WASH committee sell water at subsidised rate to residents in an effort to maintain and sustain the facility.
NAN reports that the meeting, which had all partners and committee members of the project in attendance, also presented maintenance kits to the representatives of all the beneficiary communities. (NAN)
