Two-thirds of Nigeria’s PHCs lack water access- WaterAid

Two-thirds of Nigeria’s PHCs lack water access- WaterAid

WaterAid’s country representative, Michael Ojo presenting the report on Wednesday

ABUJA – A new report by WaterAid Nigeria, an international non-governmental working towards  improved access to safe water, improved hygiene and sanitation in the world’s poorest communities,  has revealed that  two-thirds of 200 Primary Health Care facilities in the country lack access to adequate water while 20% lack access to toilets.

The report also shows that while majority of the Primary Health Care centres assessed had one form of water source or the other, only 27.6% of the PHCs met NPHCDA minimum standard of access to a motorised borehole.

Presenting the report to the media yesterday, WaterAid’s country representative, Michael Ojo, said there was no evidence that there is inequality in access to water by location. According to him, access to piped water into facilities was generally low across all locations while urban and semi-urban areas had more facilities with piped water in the facilities ‎with 12% and 7.6% health facilities respectively.

‎Ojo noted that improving access to water and sanitation is going to take collective efforts and urged stakeholders to join the Federal Government in this regard.

“For us to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goal 6, we need every agencies to work together and support the Federal government’s  plan to make it happen,”

He commended the Federal Government ‎for its current efforts to improve access to health care facilities, water and sanitation  in the country.

“We believe that it can be done.  By 2030 everywhere and everyone in Nigeria will have access to water, sanitation and hygiene. We are working very hard to support government to deliver that ”

He disclosed that WaterAid is also looking at other things that affects nutrition and also how to prevent diseases which are still connected to lack of access to water.

“We are working with the Ministry of Health and other agencies to see how we can bring the programming together. We are going to be partnering with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) to address some of these findings ”

“As part of our world water day event, ‎ we had a round table with UNICEF and other agencies and we know that budget of the NPHCDA for 2017 has a line dedicated to WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene). We are happy to know that and begin to see that it will expand,” he said.

 

About author

You might also like

GUEST WRITER 0 Comments

Why food safety should be our concern in Nigeria

By Adebayo Solanke Lagos State has demonstrated excellence in good governance, infrastructure development, economic activities, and innovation. Equally, the Centre of Excellence has been a role model to Nigeria’s Federal

BREAKING NEWS 0 Comments

UNICEF partners Malawi to test first humanitarian drone in Africa

In cooperation with the Government of Malawi, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) will establish an air corridor and use unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), known as drones, for humanitarian purposes,

Lagos begins construction of new Massey Street Children’s Hospital

Construction work has commenced at the site designated for the new Massey Street Children’s Hospital located at the Adeniji Adele Road, Lagos Island. Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi who

0 Comments

No Comments Yet!

You can be first to comment this post!

Leave a Reply