Nigeria Partners World Bank To Accelerate Nationwide Water Availability

The Federal Government is fast tracking the process of ensuring water availability for the entire country through the World Bank project, Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma, has said.

He also said the Imo State government is forging a relationship with the oldest University of Technology and Agriculture in Ireland with a view to working with the State University of Agriculture to boost technical manpower and encourage agricultural production.

Uzodinma stated these in an interview with journalists after separate meetings with a delegation of the World Bank led by its Director, Ndiame Diop and the Irish Ambassador to Nigeria, Peter Ryan.

Part of the reason of the visit of the World Bank delegation was to review the programme and see how best it could be fast-tracked to reduce bureaucracy,

Arise News reports that the World Bank has several water projects in the country, including the Nigeria Sustainable Urban and Rural Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (SURWASH) Program

The SURWASH program which aims to improve access to Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) services in the country,  is projected to provide six million Nigerians with basic drinking water services, support 1.4 million in accessing improved sanitation services, develop improved WASH services in 2,000 schools and Health Care Facilities, and assist 500 communities in achieving Open Defecation-Free (ODF) status.

Uzodinma told journalists that the Nigerian government is working towards achieving the target.

He said, “The Country Director of the World Bank is here and as you may be aware, we have a strong relationship with the World Bank. In some of the programmes, Imo State is participating in them, even though they are federation programmes.

“The SURWASH programme is a water programme which is meant to strengthen and boost the water supply and ensure that almost all the households in every state in the country receives a quality and good drinking water. Imo State is one of the pilot states involved in the SURWASH programme to provide water, both to the rural and urban centres. We’ve started the programme and the World Bank delegation came here.

“The federation has an arrangement. It is called the Federation Support Programme. It has been so slow, the pace of work has been slow, the implementation of the programme is also slow. So we’re trying to fast-track the implementation. The whole idea is to make sure that at least every household has access to quality water, rather than see people every day hauling jerry cans around the town, around the villages, and some of our rural people forcing themselves, subjecting themselves to any type of water, and then from there they get water-borne diseases and all that and that.

“I think it is a very good programme fashioned by the Federal Government to enable quality and safe water to get to our people. We are participating. But we want to ensure that we get value from the programme and we want to ensure that the programme is also completed within a record time.

“Part of the reason was to review the programme and see how best we can fast-track it, reduce bureaucracy, and be more practical in the approach of implementation to ensure that as many households as possible in Imo State have access to safe, quality, and good drinking water.

“We had a very quality composition and we were on the same page, and agreed on the need to fast-track the project.”

Uzodinma also spoke on the visit of the Ambassador of Ireland.

He said, “We’re trying to forge a new partnership between Ireland with our tertiary institutions in Imo State to boost technical manpower and encourage our agricultural production. We want to create a relationship between the biggest and almost the oldest University of Technology and Agriculture in Ireland to work with the University of Agriculture in Imo State, and then the technological village we are creating in Imo State because of the new digital skill acquisition programmes we have introduced into our skill-up programme.

“So this is still at an exploratory stage. It is our hope that our next meeting will be in Imo State, where all the key players and participants will get involved and work out the appropriate framework for consummating the relationship.”

Friday Olokor

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