There is a widely held belief that water is life, as one of the basic needs for daily use. However, in spite of its prime place in human lives, it is disheartening that in the 21st century, human beings still share drinking water with animals. These animals contaminate the water and cause life-threatening diseases like cholera.
This situation, coupled with the perennial water shortage in Nasarawa State, caught the attention of Governor Abdullahi Sule. During a ministerial briefing shortly after he assumed office, he vowed to address the suffering of the state’s residents by ensuring access to clean drinking water.
During the briefing, the governor was shocked to learn that the Ministry of Water Resources and its agencies, the State Water Board and Nasarawa State Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (NARUWASSA), were battling obsolete equipment and a lack of manpower, among other challenges. These have impeded their capacity to provide people with good drinking water.
Disturbed by the situation, Governor Sule constituted a seven-man Committee to appraise the state’s water supply and appropriately advise the government.
“Clean water supply was one of the things I promised to deliver during my campaign, and I will do everything possible to fulfil the promise”, Governor Sule has said and proceeded to, in August 2021 declared a state of emergency on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and launched the clean water usage.
To ensure all-inclusive participation, the government cascaded the WASH campaign to local government areas. NARUWASSA appointed WASH unit Desk officers and Assistant desk officers to the clean water usage campaign in each of the state’s 13 LGAs.
Six LGAs were selected for the implementation of the Partnership for Expanded Water Sanitation and Hygiene (PEWASH) for the 2021 project. The NARUWASSA Technical Staff embarked on on-site visits to all the communities under each electoral ward in the selected LGAs of Kokona, Akwanga, Lafia, Awe, Nasarawa and Wamba.
PEWASH, a multi-sectoral and multi-stake-holders programme, is being supported by the World Bank. It is designed to build on the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (RWSS) programme, which ended in 2015.
The implementation of PEWASH is structured so that participating state governments access funds annually from the federal government in a clearly designed partnership agreement. It is a counterpart-funded programme in which a state government contributes an equal amount to the execution of projects in the selected LGAs. This is done in line with the drive towards meeting the SDGs target for 100% access to clean water supply and sanitation for all Nigerians by 2030.
The Nasarawa State government embraced the project through the partnership for PEWASH, as it desired to achieve its goal of providing clean water to its residents.
In 2021, NARUWASSA constructed 45 solar-powered boreholes and 30 hand-pump boreholes in 75 communities across the three LGAs of Akwanga, Kokona, and Lafia. It also constructed two blocks of compartment VIP toilets, each in selected public schools across the three aforementioned LGAs in the state.
The feat was replicated in 2022 when NARUWASSA constructed 30 simple solar-powered boreholes in 30 communities across 2 LGAs of Toto and Nasarawa Eggon.
As at the last count, through the support of Governor Sule, NARUWASSA rehabilitated 200 hand pump boreholes and 30 solar-powered boreholes and upgraded 25 conventional motorized boreholes to solar-powered boreholes in Akwanga, Doma, Kokona and Lafia council areas. Some of the rehabilitated boreholes are in LGEA Primary School Akurba, Abbattoir Bakin Rijiya, Ta’al Model Primary School and Bukan Sidi, all in Lafia LGAs. Others are those Alwaza, Alagye, Ruttu
NARUWASSA, in collaboration with the Society for Family Health and the United Nations (UN), also provided vulnerable families with water purification tablets (aqua tabs), water storage containers, soaps, and other WASH kits during the cholera outbreak.
It is, however, worrisome that the benefiting communities do not take ownership of the provision of clean water projects, and this leads to a breakdown of the facilities and is sometimes vandalized. Against this backdrop, NARUWASSA considered it necessary and designed a new strategy towards addressing the menace. To this end, the Agency in 2021 embarked on a visit to all the 13 LGAs in the State for awareness on the need for communities to take ownership of the facilities provided to them by the government.
To ensure that water facilities are regularly maintained and are repaired as soon as they are broken to avoid hardship, Water Sanitation and Hygiene Committees (WASHCOMs) from the PEWASH-benefiting communities were trained at Village Level Operation and Maintenance (VLOM) and were provided with maintenance tools to facilitate their maintenance operations in their communities.
To ensure that Nasarawa State people have more access to improved WASH services, the government collaborated with non-governmental organizations, the Center for Gospel Health and Development and the Society for Family Health.
As the late General Manager of NARUWASSA, Dr Rowland A. Ayuba, said, the achievements so far recorded in giving Nasarawa residents clean drinking water were due to the commitment of Governor Sule. This is one governor who believes government and governance are all about service delivery and has been meeting the needs of the people in a practical and effective way.
According to the NARUWASSA General Manager, in fulfilment of its obligation to give residents of the state portable water and sanitation, the government has been faithful in paying its counterpart funds to development partners. This has attracted the Federal Government’s presence and other development partners in the state, contributing to the provision of clean water.
Dr Ayuba said the governor’s appellation, “Exceeding all Expectations,” is a keyword for NARUWASSA in complementing the efforts of Engineer A.A. Sule’s administration.
Dr Ayuba, who was recently gruesomely murdered, has been a very good ambassador of Governor Sule as far as executing WASH projects is concerned. In one of his outings before his unfortunate murder, he appealed to all communities in the state to remain patient and supportive of the government as Governor A.A. Sule is not relenting in giving clean water to the entire state.
Governor Sule’s commitment to providing clean water and fulfilling financial obligations to attract the support of the federal government and development partners is commendable. Given the importance of water in human lives, we must support concerted efforts to conserve water resources.
