Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, has declared a state of emergency on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in Nigeria. He made the declaration while inaugurating the National Action Plan for Revitalisation of Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
In his remarks at the event, Buhari said the declaration became necessary to reduce the high prevalence rate of water borne diseases in different parts of Nigeria. He further noted that the situation has caused preventable deaths.
Buhari intimated the gathering that he was vary much aware that Nigeria did not meet the Water Supply and Sanitation-MDGs target that ended in 2015.
He added that “The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets (6.1 & 6.2) for WASH are even more demanding as they require WASH services to be provided in adequate quantity and quality on premises at affordable prices.”
He said this cannot be achieved with continuous “business as usual” approach.
“It is on this premise that I fully endorse the decision taken at the meeting of the Federal Executive Council in April this year to declare a State of Emergency on our WASH Sector,” the president said.
He also enjoined state governments to complement the federal government’s effort by according the sector similar recognition “to enable us work together to achieve the SDG targets for WASH by 2030.”
In this regard, he gave a matching order to government at all levels to redouble efforts and works geared towards meeting the nation’s water supply and sanitation needs.
The president described disturbing statistics on open defecation, access to piped water services and sanitation in the country. He added that henceforth, Federal Government’s support to state governments would be based on their commitment to implement the National WASH Action Plan in their respective states and to end open defecation by 2025.
“Access to piped water services which was 32% in 1990 has declined to 7% in 2015; access to improved sanitation has also decreased from 38% in 1990 to 29% in 2015. About 25% of the population are practising open defecation and the country is second in the global ranking on open defecation.
“WASH services at the rural areas are unsustainable as 46% of all water schemes are non-functional, and the share of our spending on WASH sector has been declining from 0.70% of the GDP in 1990 to about 0.27% in 2015 which African regional level.”