Nigeria begins WASH policy review for improved service delivery 

The federal ministry of water resources and stakeholders in the Nigerian water sector have come together to review comments and suggestions on shared terms of reference of the technical committee for the development of national WASH policy and implementation strategy.

The meeting, which held on Thursday at Bolton White Hotel in Abuja was a stakeholder engagement of the ministry’s technical committee, which was inaugurated on 3rd April, 2023 by the immediate past minister of environment and his counterpart minister of water resources.

The director water supply in the ministry of water resources, who is also the chairman of the technical committee, Nicholas Dumebi Madu, declared the meeting open.

Madu said the meeting was “a testament to the fact that we are poised to advance the development of this national WASH policy and to use this opportunity to thank all the technical committee members for this tremendous achievement.”

He also reminded members of the committee that their main task is to further galvanize efforts made and dissect all relevant sections of the ToR, as the ministry is at the verge of engaging a suitable consulting firm for the review process, which is expected to accommodate relevant contributions from all over the world.

The director further noted that improved WASH services have multi-layered impact towards other human development outcomes, such as poverty reduction and inclusive growth, safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH).

Madu further stressed that these are fundamental to healthier standards of living for people.

According to him, “it was on this premise that the federal ministry of water resources, in collaboration with federal ministry of environment and other relevant stakeholders reengineered efforts towards the development of a comprehensive national WASH policy and implementation strategy to address perceived imbalance in WASH service delivery throughout the country.”

During the occasion, goodwill messages were giving by representatives of WaterAid, World Bank and UNICEF.

In attendance, physically or virtually, were members of the committee, who were drawn from about thirty agencies, line ministries, parastatals, and the the academia, as well as from civil society groups, organized private sector on WASH (OPS-WASH), development partners and the media.