By Tosin Olatokunbo
The World Bank has approved a $700 million dollar for the Nigeria Sustainable Urban and Rural Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Programme, URWASH.
The News Agency of Nigeria, NAN reports that the $700 million loan is from the bank’s International Development Association, IDA.
It is a body which helps the world’s poorest countries by providing grants and low to zero-interest loans for projects and programs that boost economic.
According to the details provided by the Bretton Wood body, the fund is expected to be used to provide 6 million people with basic drinking water services and 1.4 million people access to improved sanitation services.
The bank made the announcement in a statement on its website in Washington D. C. on Thursday, where it said the programme will also deliver improved Water Sanitation and Hygiene, WASH services to 2,000 schools and Health Care Facilities and assist 500 communities to achieve open defecation-free status.
The progamme, it said would be implemented as part of the Federal Government’s National Action Plan (NAP) for the revitalisation of Nigeria’s water supply, sanitation, and hygiene sector.
According to the bank “In 2019, approximately 60 million Nigerians were living without access to basic drinking water services, 80 million without access to improved sanitation facilities and 167 million without access to a basic handwashing facility.
“In rural areas, 39 per cent of households lack access to at least, basic water supply services, while only half have access to improved sanitation and almost a third (29 per cent) practice open defecation, a fraction that has marginally changed since 1990.”
The bank, however, said in recent years, the Federal Government had strengthened its commitment toward improving access to WASH services, spurred on by the need for Nigeria’s WASH sector to catch up with its regional counterparts.
This, it said, led to the government declaring a state of emergency in 2018 and launching NAP aimed at ensuring universal access to sustainable and safely managed WASH services by 2030, commensurate with the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs.
It also said the programme would support NAP which was a 13-year strategy prioritising action within three phases.
They are Emergency Plan, Recovery Plan and Revitalisation Strategy and also the Clean Nigeria; Use the Toilet Campaign which aims to have Nigeria free of open defecation by 2025.
Shubham Chaudhuri, World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, said the programme’s centrality to the human capital agenda and its potential to influence key human capital outcomes could not be over-emphasised.
He said this was because access to WASH was an important determinant of human capital outcomes, including early childhood survival, nutrition, health, learning and women’s empowerment, all of which in turn affected labour productivity and efficiency.
“This will help to keep more girls in school, create employment and reduce open defecation, while developing greater resilience to the impact of climate change and conflicts between different land and water users,” he said.
The SURWASH programme is performance-based and participation is open to all states in Nigeria based on their commitment to specific reforms in the sector.
