[ad_1]
…tasks Nigeria on accelerating actions to meet the 2030 WASH target
WaterAid Nigeria has said a situation where only 10% of Nigerians have access to potable Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) and only 10 liters of water was available to the rural population was unacceptable.
The Country Director of WaterAid Nigeria, Evelyn Mere in a statement made available to newsmen on Thursday in Abuja, insisted that the Nigerian government must make WASH a top national priority, increase WASH financing, champion an inspirational vision, and drive institutional reform that has results at all levels.
Mere noted that WASH services were vital for everyone, adding that their services were indispensable to economic development as well as health, tackling gender inequality and building resilience to climate change.
According to her, WaterAid’s latest policy paper: “Ending the water, sanitation, and hygiene crisis together: policy priorities for accelerating progress,” sets out a series of recommendations to countries working to accelerate progress towards sustainable and safe WASH services for all.
She said: “Over the past 20 years, we have seen that real progress is possible when WASH is prioritized in national development.
“In Nigeria, basic drinking water coverage rose from 43 per cent in 2000 to 73 per cent in 2020. Yet, we are mid-way through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and progress is still unacceptably slow.
“The next decade will see a continued rise in population and rural-urban migration. Climate change, political instability, disease outbreaks, and economic downturns pose additional threats to health, water security, food security, the economy, gender equality, and social development. Ensuring sustainable and safe WASH will become even more critical to build people’s resilience.
“With only seven years to deliver on Sustainable Development Goal 6- clean water and sanitation for all. WaterAid is calling on the government to make WASH a top national priority, champion an inspirational vision, and drive institutional reform that has results at all levels. Substantially increase WASH financing, ensuring costed finance strategies are developed, backed by sufficient public funds to build a high-performing sector that attracts finance and improves the quality of spending.
“No one deserves to be denied of their rights to clean water, decent toilets, and good hygiene. We have less than a decade to achieve the 2030 target for SDG 6- clean water and sanitation for all. Sadly, progress to achieve SDG6 is too slow, but there are ways to accelerate change by implementing the right WASH policies in government and investing in WASH. Government can provide more, better quality finance for water, sanitation, and hygiene in the long term to achieve and sustain national targets.
“A situation where only 10% of Nigerians have access to basic WASH, 67% use basic drinking water services, and the per capita volume of water available to our rural population daily is 10 Liters, 40 liters less than the UN accepted standard, is unacceptable and require urgent action to accelerate change.
“Now is the time to put in place the necessary policies to get back on track and accelerate progress towards universal access by 2030. Governments must lead the way and international organizations, communities, donors, and business must play their part.”
Related
[ad_2]
Source link
