WaterAid seeks investment of $15m in water, hygiene sector

WaterAid Nigeria has called on Nigeria and other low and middle-income countries to scale up financing in the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) sector by investing a minimum of $15million annually to scale up access to WASH facilities in the country.

The Country Director of WaterAid Nigeria Evelyn Mere stated this at a  2-day training of Civil Society Organisation on Budget trend analysis yesterday in Abuja disclosed that the organisation recently launched a strategy for 2023-2028 to reach 400million people globally with WASH-related activity by the end of 2028.

She mentioned that to enable them to achieve the target, they are committed to attracting $15million annually into the WASH sector from low and middle-income countries.

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She disclosed that for the Nigeria strategy, WaterAid through their work intends to reach 10 million people with WASH, and with strategic partnerships with government and other actors they  intend to reach an additional 17 million people giving a total of 27 million people.

To achieve the targets, the Country Director said they intend to work with CSOs being the bridge between development partners and the government.

She tasked civil societies to ensure that the government is aware of their responsibilities, and held accountable for what they have promised to do, adding that they must assist the government with the information they are missing.

Mere stated that part of their strategy was to build partnerships by involving civil societies and research institutions, private sectors, and community groups, saying the essence of the training is to equip CSOs with tools to hold the government into account, lobby them to develop a balanced budget  She said CSOs must have the ability to interpret budget and ask the right questions.

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She also emphasized the need for  a WASH Investment Plan that  has all the components of expenditure that  are needed based on the existing gaps, for instance, capital investments that need to be done, the worn-out assets that need to be replaced, the cost of operating and maintaining assets and the cost of government officials that monitor to ensure services are delivered,

Mere explained that the WaterAid strategy is aimed at ensuring universal access to safe, inclusive, climate-resilient WASH.

She added that the strategy is also targeted at influencing the government by lobbying them to replicate a sustainable model that would ensure universal access to WASH.