WaterAid Nigeria has moved to provide water, sanitation and hygiene in Lagos schools.
The project, in partnership with Lagos State Government and Cummins West Africa, is part of efforts at strengthening communities through provision of sustainable water for 20 million people by 2025.
Speaking at the groundbreaking of the project at Oregun Junior High School, Ikeja, Country Director, WaterAid Nigeria, Ms Evelyn Mere, said the mission was to ensure that lives of the poor and marginalised are transformed through access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene.
According to her, water, sanitation and hygiene are the foundation for sound health and shouldn’t be joked with.
She thanked the Lagos State government for providing an enabling environment to situate the project, which she said would go a long way in increasing school enrolment, completion and transition rate among students in Lagos’ public schools.
Mere noted that the intervention also supports the Lagos State Educational Transformation Plan 2020 by improving Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) facilities and services in schools and correctional facilities in the state.
Also, Managing Director of Cummins West Africa, Mark Oni-Okeke,
extolled the importance of partnership in providing sustainable and affordable access to water for deprived communities.
He said the project will be completed in months, while the total value of the firm’s intervention in Nigeria is approximately $1.3 million, which translates to about N1 billion.
“Today, we engage with Oregun Junior High School to break grounds for a water project and provide clean WASH facilities as well as access to clean water. Oregun is not the only school where we are doing this,” he said.
While commending Cummins and WaterAid Nigeria for their unwavering support to qualitative education in Lagos. Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Jamiu Alli-Balogun, said the foundation laying serves as a collective commitment to providing students with needed tools to succeed in schools.
On his part, representative of the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, Jude Oyedele, said the initiative would leave a lasting impact on the education community.
Oyedele urged other private sector players to join hands with the government in building more infrastructure in schools as part of Corporate Social Responsibility.
Also speaking, Cummins Corporate Responsibility Lead for the Africa region, Christian Ndoma, said the organisation is working to improve the plights of communities.
He said the project is the second implementation on water in the African continent, starting with South Africa.
