Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, is leading Nigeria’s delegation to the 2019 World Water Week celebration in Stockholm, Sweden, where the country will share its effort to end open defecation.
The World Water Week 2019 will take place from August 26 to August 30, with the theme: “Water for society – including all”.
Mr Emmanuel Awe, the Director, Water Quality Control in the Ministry of Water Resources, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday, August 26 in Abuja that Nigeria’s participation in the event was critical to ending Open Defecation in the country.
“We strongly believe that water is key to future prosperity and that together we can achieve a water wise world.
“We are going there to share our experiences, especially on issues of ending open defecation in Nigeria.
“The whole global communities are looking up to us to take actions because India has announced to the world that they are exiting and the next country on the ladder is Nigeria.
“So, we are going to highlight all the things that are being done internally by President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that we end open defecation in Nigeria by 2025.
“The Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet programme, we are going to flag it off there and discuss issues on achieving it.
“We are also going to request some support of these countries that have been through this, especially India, Bangladesh that have done great work in the area of eliminating opening defecation in their countries,” he said.
Awe however said that Nigeria would also share its experiences with other countries, adding “we want to learn what they did right, so that we can equally bring that into our country”.
He said that the World Water Week would enable participants to build capacity, form partnerships and review implementation, thereby advancing the world’s water, environment, health, livelihood and poverty reduction agenda.
The theme for the 2019 World Water Week is said to be an adaptation of the central promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – as sustainable development progresses, everyone must benefit.
The event is being hosted and organised by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI).
The World Water Week is the leading annual global event for concretely addressing the planet’s water issues and related concerns of international development.
Leaders and experts from the world’s scientific, business, government and civic communities will convene in Stockholm to exchange views, experiences and shape joint solutions to global water challenges.
The previous edition in 2018 attracted over 3,300 participants and 370 convening organisations from 135 countries.
By Joan Nwagwu
