By Funke Oyerinde
Ekiti State Government has called on key stakeholders in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene sectors to support the ongoing Sustainable Urban Rural Water Supply Sanitation and Hygiene (SURWASH) Program in order to achieve the desired goal of guaranteeing adequate water supply, sanitation and hygiene services to all parts of Ekiti State.
Speaking in Ado Ekiti at a forum tagged “Stakeholders’ Engagement”, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Infrastructure and Public Utilities, Prof. Mobolaji Aluko explained that the meeting was organized to deepen the strategies for results from the SURWASH program.
Professor Aluko stressed that the SURWASH program was tailored to ensure success and have enormous impact on the benefiting States, adding that the result based approach was to drive efforts of Stakeholders at improving citizens' access to sustainable and safely managed Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services.
According to him, Ekiti is the only State in the South-West and one of seven States across the country benefiting from this World Bank-assisted project.
Assuring that the State would achieve the projected target when the program is completed in 2027, Aluko however emphasized the need for the State Government and all stakeholders to live up to their responsibilities and take ownership of the project to guarantee success.
In her goodwill message, the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon Olubunmi Adelugba pledged the continued support of the State Legislators for efforts to develop the State.
Rt. Hon. Adelugba who lauded the efforts of both the immediate past administration and the Biodun Oyebanji’s government for attracting development partners to the State, said that their contributions were praise-worthy, with an indication that her interest in the WASH sector predated her assumption of the Speakership position.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Infrastructure and Public Utilities, Engineer Olumide Ajayi, in his remarks, enumerated the gaps yet to be filled in the WASH sector in the state, and charged the Implementing Agencies on SURWASH program to ensure good job and follow the rules for implementation and disbursement purposes, stressing that the World Bank would only disburse for work done according to specifications and due independent verification.
Ajayi added that consideration must be given to environmental and social safeguard impact on this program as well as the gender mainstreaming, saying non-compliance to rules attached to all Disbursement Link Indicators (DLIs) would lead to non-disbursement.
The Program Coordinator Engineer Stephen Adewumi who appreciated the level of efforts put in place by the State Government, sought support and collaboration from the stakeholders for sustainability of SURWASH program in the state, while the Program Monitoring and Evaluation Officer _Mr. Femi Olatunji outlined among other things the various incentives associated with various Disbursement Link Indicators.
The Stakeholders’ meeting was attended by top Government functionaries including the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Olubunmi Adelugba, Special Advisers to the Governor for Education and Government Reforms (Dr Kofoworola Aderiye and Mr Seun Fakuade respectively) and several Permanent Secretaries and Executive Secretaries.
Other attendees included the Civil Society Organizations, private water operators and Water Consumers Associations, WASHCOM, State Program Implementation Unit, LGAs' WASH officers as well as Implementing Agencies.
It would be recalled that seven States are benefitting from the World Bank-assisted $700million SURWASH program. The benefiting States are Ekiti, Delta, Katsina, Kaduna, Gombe, Imo and Plateau for a period of six years.
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