Special Adviser to Governor Adegboyega Oyetola on Rural Development and Community Affairs, Engr. Mumini Adekunle Rafiu has stressed the need for the validation of a comprehensive rural water supply and sanitation investment plan by the state government.
Speaking in Osogbo at a workshop organised to validate the investment plan, aimed at the validation of the investment plan, Rafiu harped on the importance of potable water and healthy living to human existence.
According to him, in April this year, rigorous training for officers that went to the field to collate data preceded the data gathering exercise adding that every nook and cranny of Osun State Rural Areas was visited to collate data on all available (both functional and non-functional) Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) facilities.
He noted that the exercise became imperative especially now that  Investment plans are now usually a major requirement by the Federal Government and other donor partners like the AfDB, EU, UNICEF, World Bank etc. for intervention and support in every sector, especially WASH.
His words: “During the training and field exercise proper, all relevant stakeholders contributed their quota to ensure success and this was achieved, even though with several on-field and off-field challenges that peoples cooperation allowed us to surmount. Hence, today represents the validation meeting of the then all-important exercise.”
“I, therefore, passionately appeal to this meeting to ensure our participation and cooperation so that this validation workshop will be worth it indeed. Let us look at the documents critically, iron out all the grey areas, disagree to agree, dot all the Is and cross all the Ts so that at the end of the day, Osun WASH would have a very potent and formidable Investment Plan which can be proudly presented to anyone at any level and at any time. Once this is achieved, everyone in this workshop would have successfully written their names in the good books of history that will never be erased.
While appreciating Governor Adegboyega Oyetola for accommodating and approving the great developmental idea and providing an enabling environment for the success of the exercise, the Special Adviser urged participants to ensure a thorough job for the betterment of the people of Osun State.
He also appreciated the Federal Ministry of Water Resources that has partnered with the African Development Bank, the Consultancy Firm (Geomatics Nigeria Limited), all Directors of Water Environmental Sanitation at the LGAs, Osun RUWESA Management and staff, and all the officers that went to the field to facilitate this data gathering. You have all done a very good job and Osun State is proud of you.
In his own submission, the general manager, RUWESA, Mr Ademola Olanrewaju, pointed out that, “at the Local government level, our focus amongst others was to carry out an in-depth review of the LGA, as to determine the status of WASH departments/units in the state and the extent of their conformity.”
Another focus at the local government level according to him, is “with the National Policy on Water Supply and Sanitation in terms of structure, staffing, equipment, and other resources. In other words, we are interested in determining the availability or otherwise of some WASH facilities at the respective LGAs in the state, which includes the WASH structure and account, functional water points, latrine compartments, and establishment of village level operation and maintenance (VLOM).
In addition, he remarked that “we want to know the status of Local governments WASH Department/Unit professionals, skill levels and other field and office facilities and to also, examine the LGA WASH budget (allocation) and other funding sources, as well as the
actual expenditure (fund released) to the departments/units at the respective LGAs, in the last
four years, 2018 to 2021, to ascertain the functional departments/units within this
period, in conformity with an established national
Also speaking, the Geomatics Managing Director, Dr Festus Akindunni, noted that granting a certain level of autonomy to the State Agency will go a long in ameliorating the bureaucratic bottlenecks in replacing staff that left the agency, especially the key staff, for instance, The board of the agency with the management can be given the mandate to recruit staff following process as may be required.
He added that capacity building for the staff of the state agency needs to be strengthened and a plan created to replace those who are leaving while, staff salaries, and benefits should be based on performance and need enhancement, mainly in form of productivity bonuses.
Akindunni further submitted that the agency needs to be funded, and provided with requisite office equipment and materials and operational vehicles for effective supervision and monitoring of projects.
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