Minister bemoans poor water supply, sanitation in Nigeria

By Mohammed Usman

The Minister of Water Resources, Engr. Suleiman H. Adamu, has said that the situation of the country’s water supply and Sanitation sub-sector has reached a pathetic stage.
According to a statement which indicated its source to have come from the office of the minister and signed unbehalf of the Acting permanent secretary of water ministry by the Director of water supply and public private partnership of the ministry, Eng. Benson Ajisegiri, more than 50 million Nigerians do not have access to improved sources of drinking water while over 100 million lack access to improved sanitation facilities either at home or in public places.
In the statement, Adamu said that to address this situation, the Ministry recently launched an initiative tagged, “Partnership for Expanded Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (PEWASH).
The statement added that the PEWASH is a National Collaboration Platform for the improvement of access to water supply and Sanitation nationwide through structured multi-agency partnerships. It added that the minister said that in the partnership, there are roles for the
Public sector, private sector and other development partners, both local and international.
The statement went further that it was in view of the above that the minister is inviting all the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of the Organized Private Sector to a one-day interactive meeting where the PEWASH Initiative will be unveiled to the private sector. The statement stressed that the meeting has been scheduled to hold on Thursday 20th July, 2017 by 10:00am at the Protea Hotel, 42/44 Isaac John Street GRA, Ikeja, Lagos.
Meanwhile, earlier before this, while inspecting mangu dam, the minister said that the ministry inherited 116 abandoned projects across the country and Mangu dam project in Plateau is one of such projects. He said that after a rapid technical audit of all the abandoned projects, Mangu dam project was selected as a priority project to be completed in 2017 because of its benefits to the people of the region.
“90 percent of the projects abandoned are viable; they have potentials to benefit the people of the regions”, he said.

from peoples daily