THE Federal Government has identified lack of adequate potable water across the country as factors responsible for a greater percentage of illness and death.
The Minister of Water Resources, Mr Suleiman Adamu, stated this during the official commissioning of Kamomi Aketi Accelerated Water Scheme at Ayede Ogbese, Ondo state.
According to him, recent statistics have shown that the country has significant challenges of access to adequate water supply, sanitation and hygiene, saying over 25 per cent of the nation’s population still practice open defecation which ranked the country the second in the world among the country practising open defecation.
He listed the consequences of this to the high prevalence of water-related diseases, reduced school enrollment and attendance, loss of dignity, increased risk of insecurity and violence against women and children.
He advocated for more extra work from the government at all levels in the country in order to put a stop to all the avoidable consequences.
He said: “It is against this background that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, has taken bold steps that are intended to galvanise concerted actions towards solving the problems through the launch of the national programme for accelerated access to rural water supply tagged ‘PEWASH’.
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He commended the Ondo state government for embracing the vision of the Federal government for the water sector through the Kamomi Aketi Accelerated Water Scheme.
He said I am delighted that the state governor, Akeredolu, has begun to take pro-active steps towards addressing the water supply challenges of the State.
“This is an excellent example of how to bring dividends of democracy to the people. The Kamomi Aketi Accelerated Water Scheme that we are launching today has become name amongst water policymakers and experts”
The Minister however assured that the Federal government would mobilise resources to support the project while the programme would be promoted to give all necessary prominence that the state deserved on rural water supply.
Speaking during the inauguration, Akeredolu said the scheme was part of the state government’s efforts aimed at meeting the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 by 2030 and said his administration embarked on the project following a devastating revelation that the percentage of public water supply in the state was less than four per cent.
Akeredolu explained that the Ayede Ogbese water scheme was designed to have 5km reticulation and distribution network with a storage tank of 50m capacity that would discharge at full capacity twice a day with 100 public standpipes, 200 fetching points while one fetching point will serve 50 people.
He said: “As part of our avowed commitment to improving the well-being of our people, our administration embarked upon a two-prong approach to revitalize Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in Ondo State with a special focus on rural and urban water supply utilizing slightly different strategies.
“We, therefore, came up with Kamomi Concept which has brought on board the ongoing rehabilitation of all non-functional boreholes.
“A major component of Kamomi which is the expansion of new water facilities to increase water access is what we are commissioning today.”
Akeredolu, however, expressed optimism that the new initiative would eradicate open defecation among other health challenges facing the people of the State.
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