WaterAid Nigeria with support from Microsoft Inc. has rolled out a new project aiming at improving access to sustainable Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services in the peri-urban area of Lagos State.
The intervention programme titled Lagos Peri-urban Water and Sanitation Improvement Project will be implemented through increasing access to water supply and sanitation services and strengthening mechanisms that promote community preparedness for water-related shocks and stresses that arise from the effects of climate change.
In her remarks, Evelyne Mere, Country Director for WaterAid Nigeria, said: “The three-year project is set to reach nothing less than 21,475 people with access to sustainable, resilient, and affordable Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services in Ikorodu North LCDA.”
The Country Director, represented by Dr. Adebayo Alao, said: “WaterAid reiterates its committed partnership with Lagos State and all relevant stakeholders. We look forward to the successful implementation of the project and the sustainability of the rehabilitated facilities. We hope that the governments at both levels will adopt these models for upscaling and replication across the evolving megacity of Lagos until everyone, everywhere have access to sustainable WASH services.”
“Lagos State is among the most populous cities in Africa, with an estimated population of 22 million people. However, like many other cities in sub-Saharan Africa, it struggles to manage rapid population growth and urban development, including providing access to essential services like Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH), hence the need for the intervention programme,” she maintained.
Speaking further, Mere noted that “WaterAid in collaboration with the government and civil society organisations will be implementing this project with emphasis on rehabilitation of non-functional water and handwashing facilities, upgrade of sanitation facilities to be gender inclusive; one that addresses the needs of women/girls and persons with disabilities, and promotion of good hygiene that supports healthy living.
“The Peri-Urban Water and Sanitation Improvement project will leverage our ongoing Clean Family Campaign in the state to promote and improve targeted hygiene behaviours in communities to improve health outcomes and curb the spread of infectious diseases by establishing/strengthening Environmental Health Clubs (EHCs) in schools and instituting Volunteer Hygiene Promoters (VHPs) who will become champions of hygiene behaviour change,” she stated.
In his remarks, Godfrey Iloha, WASH Manager (Microsoft Project), said to achieve the target, four communities namely Omigun, Arobiona, Irepodun-Ayegbami and Agbede Olosugbo as well as Farm Settlement Primary School in Odogunyan, all in Ikorodu North LCDA will be benefiting from the intervention programme.
According to Iloha, “The project has three objectives: one is improving access to water and sanitation, increasing education and awareness on hygiene as well as strengthening governance systems.
“For everything that WaterAid does, it is about sustainability, WaterAid alone cannot achieve the enormity of access gap in the state. We need to work with the state government, who has the ultimate responsibility to provide water and access whatever we do is some sort of a model for them to be able to take off and then sustain them. So, all that we do is we bring in stakeholders from local from the community and at the state level,” he submitted.
The 2021 Water, Sanitation and Hygiene National Outcome Routine Mapping (WASHNORM) Survey shows that 45% of people in Lagos lack access to safely managed water, 75% lack access to safely managed sanitation and 65% do not have access to hygiene services while 34% drink water contaminated with E. coli.
In recent years, as the climate crisis has become more severe, there has also been a major surge in the number of cholera outbreaks across the world including Lagos State.
Findings from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Cholera Situation Report Monthly Epidemiological Report 15 Epi week 32: (August 5, 2024 – August 11, 2024) show that Lagos accounted for 63% (3,758 cases) of all suspected cases in the country of the 36 states that have reported cases.
Disease outbreaks such as this continue to highlight the importance of access to adequate water, sanitation, and hygiene services and more so, that the provision of WASH infrastructures is climate resilient.
Dignitaries that graced the occasion include Engr. Adisa Yinusa, Director of Water Resources in the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources; Mr. Fadunsin Babatunde (Deputy Director WASH) from the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs; Prince Prince Adeniran Ogunbanwo, WASHCOM Coordinator and Chairman CDC, Ikorodu North, CDA Chairmen from the benefiting communities in the LCDA, among others.
By Ajibola Adedoye
