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From Charity Nwakaudu, Abuja
Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation Professor Joseph Utsev has called on State Governments to improve funding for sustainable urban and rural hygiene (SURWASH) programme among states Government and the federal government
The Minister, made the appeal while delivering his keynote address at the third federal steering committee meeting of the Nigeria- Sustainable Urban and Rural Hygiene (SURWASH) programme in Abuja.
Prof. Utsev stressed that inadequate funding would affect the level of achievement of goals set in the work plan by the federal government.
“We are now here for the 3rd FSC meeting to review and approve 2024 Programme Work plan for the smooth implementation of the SURWASH programme” he added.
According to the Minister it is very important for the States to adequately support this Programme at State level by providing adequate funding for their States to enable them take advantage of this opportunity considering it is a Programme-for-Results initiative.
“This improved funding will enable us achieve the activities set in this work plan and we should also consider scaling up our activities that will lead to improved disbursements by the end of the 2024 Programme year and hence the rating of the Programme”
The Minister informed the committee that they are below the annual disbursements in the previous years, therefore there is need for participating States to be proactive and committed to the program.
“The SURWASH Programme has been designed by the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation in partnership with the World Bank to support the implementation of the National WASH Action Plan (NAP) launched in November 2018.
“Through the SURWASH, the Federal Government would make infrastructure investments and drive reforms in the five National WASH Action Plan areas of governance, sustainability sanitation, funding & financing and monitoring & evaluation that serve as our Government’s overall strategy and vehicle for investment and sector reforms” the Minister stated.
Prof. Utsev added that the implementing States achieved modest results in the preparation of the Policies, Institutions and Reforms(PIR) and implemented annual performance activities under the Performance Improvement Action Plan (PIAPs) that will enable the sustainability of the programme in the second.
