FCTA to provide equitable access to water

The Federal Capital Territory Minister of State, Dr. Ramatu Aliyu, has stated the commitment of the FCT Administration to ensuring the provision of equitable access to water, sanitation, hygiene services, and strengthening community-led approaches to sanitation.

Aliyu made the commitment in commemoration of the 2023 World Water Day in Abuja, while encouraging stakeholders to join hands with the administration to accelerate change in improving access to safe drinking water in the FCT.

The minister, who was represented by the Mandate Secretary, Area Council Services Secretariat, Ibrahim Dantsoho, revealed that the FCT administration had constructed 188 hand pump borehole water supply schemes, six motorised solar-powered borehole water schemes, and rehabilitated 30 rural water supply schemes to improve access to safe drinking water for about 50,000 residents.

She reiterated that the World Water Day was about taking action to tackle the global water crisis of about 2.2 billion people living without access to safe drinking water, and to accelerate change to solve the water and sanitation crisis.

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Aliyu also thanked the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and development partners such as the UNICEF, USAID, WaterAid Nigeria, the Department for International Development, Japan International Cooperation Agency, and pledged the readiness of the administration to support and encourage collaboration and partnership, in the provision of safe drinking water in rural communities.

She said, “Sustainability of both the private and public water sources is significant in the service delivery sector of the FCT. In this respect, I urge the good people of Abuja to embrace the clarion call for behavioural change to safely manage and conserve the available water resources for the current and future generations”.

“The recent data (WASH-NORM) shows that governments must work on an average of five times faster, to meet the SDG 6 on time, but this is not a situation that any single actor or group can solve. Water affects everyone, so, we need everyone to ‘be the change’ and take action.”

Similarly, FCTA Permanent Secretary, Mr. Olusade Adesola, who was represented by the Director of Administration and Finance, Mr. Abdulrasaq Leramoh, advocated for positive impacts in accessibility to safe drinking water in rural communities.

He called on benefiting communities to take ownership of the facilities and ensure their smooth operation, management and sustainability.

In his opening remarks, the Executive Director, FCT Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency, Dr. Mohammed Dan-Hassan, identified water as an essential component of life, critical to the family unit, the community, local government, state and federal levels.

He expressed confidence that the agency had reached about 60 per cent coverage of rural communities, adding that in the next couple of years, the agency would hit 90 to 95 per cent coverage of water supply.

“We are exploiting the ground water resource, because the pipe bone network has not reached those areas yet,” he stressed.

The highpoint of the event was the inauguration of solar-powered water scheme at Pyakasa in Abuja Municipal Area Council.