The Federal Ministry of Water Resources says it is supporting Osun State government and other stakeholders to develop a Sector-Wide Approach (SWA) for the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector in the state.
Mrs Chizoma Opara, the Acting Coordinator, Clean Nigeria in the ministry, said this on Friday in Abuja.
Opara said that the collaboration would enable the state government to use the SWA to achieve its target in the WASH sector.
According to her, the state government is collaborating with all stakeholders to develop a roadmap for the WASH sector.
“So they are collaborating with the ministry, the health sector as well as urban and rural water supply, among others.
“They are also incorporating the Partnership for Expanded Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (PEWASH), Open Defecation Free (ODF) campaign, WASH Action Plan, all of which are targeted to revitalising the sector.
“So, developing that is to define a proper direction for WASH in the state, while they are also hoping to benefit from the WASH fund from the Federal Government.
“The roadmap will enable the state to know what should be put in place to attract more partners and what direction they should go following what has been laid out by the Federal Government.
“We are also discussing with the state government to ensure improvement in its WASH quality and reviewing existing strategies in open defecation, which was developed sometimes ago as well as the protocol for PEWASH which they have to sign,” she said.
Opara said that her ministry was also trying to define the roles and responsibilities in terms of the areas the partners were going to be involved in, what was expected of the state and the areas of support from the Federal Government, among others.
She said that the collaboration would entail providing support and development of a sector-wide approach that would guide the state government in developing a roadmap for achieving the target for the WASH sector.
