By Editor
A one-day sensitization workshop was held by the Sustainable Urban and Rural Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene-SURWASH, an agency within the Ministry of Infrastructure and Public Utilities on Thursday.
The workshop which seeks collaboration with Civil Society Organisations and the media in the area of sensitization of members of the public on the activities of SURWASH in Ekiti since its inception two years ago was held at Ilera loro Cooperative Hall in Ado Ekiti.
In his keynote address, the Commissioner for Infrastructure and Public Utilities, Prof Bolaji Aluko noted that SURWASH is a sub- program in the entire efforts of the State Government to ensure that water is available to every citizen of the State regardless of their places of abode.
According to him: “SURWASH program is a World Bank loan program to address certain critical issues in the state. This program which I would call, a mid-term awareness as it was supposed to run up until 2027 because it started in 2022. So we are actually doing a mid-term review to see where we are in the scheme of things”
Continuing, Prof Aluko who reiterated the importance of water said; “Water is essential to life and wherever that is, that you lived, you need water either for sanitation like toilet and hand washing facilities, or drinking or for industrial purposes. So it is important for government to provide the means to have water sanitation and hygiene”
He listed the five major dams Ekiti is blessed with such as Ero, Ureje, Egbe, Itapaji and Ogbese noting that government is focused at ensuring that the underlaid pipes around Ado and elsewhere start to get piped, portable and clean water running into individuals’ homes by 2030 as the main target of the program.
The Commissioner however lamented the lack of electricity which he described as the greatest challenge to the smooth and effective provision of water to homes saying that the relationship between water and electricity cannot be gainsaid.
“But we are addressing this very seriously” he said “Going forward, I’m looking to see the SURWASH program and how we can address the electricity components within the water sector”
He revealed the coming on board of Ekiti State Water Company whose aim is to supply water in a sustainable manner to urban areas and to charge money for the water that is provided as he claimed that no utility should be free so as to avert wastages.
He identified the other option which according to the Commissioner, is to ensure that the Community Water Users Associations have water from boreholes and schemes not necessarily driven by revenue.
“So water delivered to homes is not inexpensive, it is something that requires a lot of money, first to pump it from the raw place to where it is treated after which it is pumped and sent to the pipes covering long distances and wide diameter pipes. Sometimes there are leaks along the pipes requiring changing those pipes from asbestos to polymeric pipes”.
He opines that the Ministry intends to ensure that Ado will feel the greater impact of water availability to homes in the next one year
In conclusion of his address, Prof Aluko dropped the hint that SURWASH program is a Program for Results where the state identifies its projects and spends money ahead of time and when the World Bank comes and verifies, they provide the loan or disbursement after an independent verification agency has come to look at what has been done.
Earlier the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Infrastructure and Public Utilities, Engr Olumide Ajayi in his opening address justified the workshop being put together by the Ministry as an avenue to create proper awareness of SURWASH program in respect of behavioral change towards enlightenment of people in the rural communities.
Giving an overview of SURWASH program, the key resource person, Mr Olatunji Femi identified two key result areas that contributed to the achievement of the project development objectives namely; strengthened sector policies and institutions for improved services and improved access to water supply, sanitation and hygiene.
According to him, Ekiti State is among the seven states in the federation which SURWASH program is currently in place where the estimated numbers of beneficiaries under the program includes:
6,100,000 people provided with basic drinking water services
1,400,000 people provided with access to Improved sanitation services
3,007,300 people provided with basic drinking water services
1,626,667 people provided with drinking water in urban and small towns in the participating states
690,200 women provided with access to Improved sanitation services
2,000 schools and HCFs with Improved WASH services and 500 ODF+verified communities.
On the assessment of SURWASH projects in Ekiti State, Mr Olatunji said in the previous year, a total number of 52 boreholes were awarded and 32 completed while about 163 contracts were awarded in the outgoing year for rehabilitation and construction of boreholes across the local governments in addition to 12 WASH facilities in schools and health centers while plans are ongoing to award fresh over 200 water facilities in the coming year.
