Ekiti State government has declared 2024 a remarkable year for achieving laudable results in Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector.
Prof. Mobolaji Aluko, the state’s commissioner for infrastructure and public utilities, disclosed this in Ado-Ekiti yesterday during the first review meeting of WASH Implementing Agencies under the State Ministry of Infrastructure and Public Utilities.
He said the forum was convened to re-strategise and redouble efforts towards ensuring that the WASH sector achieved the objectives of the SURWASH programme.
The commissioner explained that the programme aimed to provide access to potable water supply in a sustainable manner that will be convenient for the citizens.
He added that it would also ensure that Sanitation and Hygiene service was maximally achieved, maintained and sustained in the State.
Aluko noted that Ekiti was endowed with rivers, water schemes and water dams, such as Egbe, Ero, Ureje, Ogbese and Itapaji which were capable of providing regular clean and potable water to all parts of the state.
According to him, the facilities also serve as veritable sources of revenue to the state for agriculture (irrigation and fishery), tourism and recreation, if properly harnessed.
He urged the representatives of the concerned agencies to brainstorm and identify the problems facing the sector and come up with workable solutions.
The commissioner said that concerned agencies should also develop a template such as a dashboard with detailed information for seamless monitoring of household beneficiaries being supplied water, volume of water, number of functional and non-functional ones with their locations.
According to Aluko, this will go a long way in measuring performance and charting the way forward.
He further urged implementing agencies to take bold steps towards addressing technical constraints and expediting action to meet up with the state procedure policies and bureaucracy that may likely slow down delivery of the SURWASH programme.
In his remarks, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Engr. Olumide Ajayi, urged the concerned agencies to collectively contribute meaningfully to ensure success in the WASH sector in 2024.
Also speaking, Mr Ayo Alegbeleye, the General Manager, Ekiti Small Town and Rural Water supply Agency, disclosed that sites identification and selection for the programme in 2024 had been completed.
He said that they were only waiting for the team on Environmental and Social Safeguard matter to commence the sites screening exercise in order to meet up with the state procedure policies and bureaucracy processing that may slow down the timely delivery of the projects.
SURWASH Programme Coordinator in the State, Engr. Stephen Adewumi, sought for greater collaboration and cooperation among all stakeholders in the WASH sector to synergise towards accomplishing the programmes’s common goals and objectives.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that all the implementing agencies reported their activities and achievement for the previous year during the strategic meeting.
The WASH sector representatives present at meeting were from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Public Utilities, Ekiti Water and Sewerage Company, Ekiti Small Town and Rural Water supply Agency
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