Water, sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), as well as education and health are very important sectors determining the level of development in any given community. This consciousness underscores the reason for many local and international donors, Non-governmental and Civil Society Organizations to take interest in them.
Unfortunately, Nigeria with its myriad of problems has not been voting adequate funds to the sectors in recent times. But for the intervention efforts of international partners like UNICEF, USAID, among others, the sectors, especially WASH could have been worse than it is at the present.
In Ebonyi, stakeholders have decried the poor state of water, sanitation and hygiene, (WASH) sectors in the State, describing it as needing immediate attention.
They also harped on the need for the government to give more attention to Education and health as vital sectors determining the future of the State.
The stakeholders raised the alarm during a one-day Citizens Engagement Mapping Validation/Strategy Development meeting organized by Development and Integrity Intervention, Goals (DIG) Foundation, in collaboration with the USAID sponsored State Accountability, Transparency and Effectiveness (State2State) project.
The meeting held in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State capital, recently, sought participant’s contributions to, and confirmation of the organizations’ findings on Education, health and WASH sectors.
It also sought citizen’s involvement in drawing strategic plans on how to improve the sectors in the State.
Some of the participants who spoke at the event, including the Chairman, forum of local government HODs of WASH in the state, Thomas Abarifi and the traditional ruler of Ameka community in Ezza South Council area, HRH Martins Nwali Oyibe, among others, decried the menace of open defecation and lack of potable water as challenges to sanitation and hygiene in the state.
While Oyibe asserted that open defecation was a global and national issue, not localized in any particular state in the country, Abarifi stressed that Ebonyi statistically ranks the highest in the state.
He recalled the earlier efforts of the Japanese International Agency in sanitation and hygiene in some parts of Nigeria, including the present geographical area called Ebonyi State, and further applauded the United Nations Children Emergency Fund, UNICEF, for their recent WASH, Education and health programmes in the State, which saw the emergence of VIP toilets and community water boreholes, among others.
He noted that UNICEF did great work in enhancing status and structures for water and sanitation in the State through community engagements and collaboration with appropriate government offices under its Community-led Total Sanitation (CLTS).
He however, alleged that the State government’s failure to follow up the recent works of UNICEF in water, sanitation and hygiene, through sponsorship crippled the program in the State, calling on government to give attention to the sectors.
Abarifi explained: “Nothing specifically is going on in WASH in the State.
“It is the responsibility of the state government to fund the follow up.
“It is a counterpart issue.
“It is those of us who are the technical persons that are supposed to be funded to follow-up what is going on.
“But all efforts we made for release of fund were not taken.
“I don’t know what really happened, but that is the situation.
“We can’t do much without funding.”
“From statistics, you can browse it; we saw that Ebonyi State has the highest number of citizens who engage in open defecation in Nigeria.
“It is as bad as that and UNICEF even communicated that to the State government when they came, and up till now, nothing has been done in that regard.”
On the water situation, Oyibe lamented: “In every community in the Southeast, it is the same situation: there is no water, and the government has not embarked on tackling the issue of water, both in Ebonyi, Enugu, Anambra and the rest.
Speaking, the Executive Director, DIG Foundation, Oliver Aja Chima explained that the meeting was in line with the mandate given to his organization by USAID-State2State, to validate their field findings concerning the sectors in the State.
He said: “DIG is being sponsored by USAID-State2State. So, we carried out what is called citizens engagement mapping to know how the people are being carried along in decision making in the State and Local government areas.
“We are here to validate the findings.
“And here, what the Stakeholders are saying is in agreement with our findings in the field and those of USAID-State2State in the area of WASH, health and education.
“Actually the report is there to speak for itself.
“I’m not speaking as Oliver Aja Chima, but from what I saw in the field as Executive Director of DIG, and what I’m seeing here today.
“People rated our education system as very poor, and we didn’t see anyone rating them satisfactory in terms of education, WASH and health…
“In fact, WASH is the worst.”
Meanwhile, some state actors interviewed at the meeting argued that the state government has done a lot in those sectors.
In his submission, the Chairman of Afikpo South Local Government area, Barr. Eni Uduma Chima, represented by Okechukwu Ugwuocha, an administrative officer from the Council, stated that although open defecation was rampant before now, his council has taken measures to stem the practice.
“Before now, there used to be open defecation everywhere, but as we speak now, it is seriously under control.
“We have given WASH free hand to operate in our council, and the department has done a lot to reduce open defecation in rural communities within the council area” Ugwuocha explained.
For the water sector, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources, Silas Eze, disagreed on the status of portable water in the State, insisting that the government under Engr. David Umahi, has made the Ezzillo Water scheme operational, supplying water to Abakaliki, the capital city.
He further noted that the Oferekpe water Scheme built by the previous administration had some defects which the present government has invited the company to correct, adding that water would soon be reticulated into the town from the Oferekpe scheme.
“We are doing our best; the government is doing a whole lot, but people should understand that potable water anywhere in the whole world is an expensive service, ranging from sourcing the water to purifying it…” Eze maintained.
Emmanuel Nwagbo, a Director of training and Staff development in the State Ministry of Education, representing the Commissioner, Sunday Nwangele also argued that Umahi’s government has improved educational infrastructures in the State, adding that the government recently approved the recruitment of more teachers to boost teaching and learning in the State.
Describing the meeting as an eye opener, the participants said they would begin to engage with the government more, and do the needful as community members to add value to the important sectors.
According to Nwagbo, the Education Ministry would intensify monitoring and supervision of schools, training and retraining of teachers as well as push for increased funding for the sector
Nwagbo however, observed that the State’s education budget was in line with what the State government can afford at the moment and every government budgets according to funds available to it.
Some of the strategic plans developed by participants included intensified community awareness and sensitization programs, engagement with government to secure increased budget for the sectors as well as increased community participation in decision making.
Participants however, insisted that until the government backed the knowledge and strategies developed from the meeting, it would continue to be business as usual.
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