Last week Thursday and Friday, the 5th National Co-ordination meeting of the European Union- assisted Water supply and Sanitation sector reform programme was held at Osogbo, Osun State, Paul Odili, was there and reports the deliberation at the two-day session.

Water is life' is a common cliche denoting the centrality of water for sustenance of human existence and promotion of healthy living. Conscious of this fact, that governments at all levels in Nigeria make a big show of committing itself to ensuring the availability of water for all. Big budgetary allocation for the provision of potable water is an annual ritual. However, despite these budgetary proposals, clean water is still not available for the people, especially in the small town and rural communities.

As important as this nature's bounty is, Nigeria's government efforts to make it available to her citizens on sustainable basis has been a spectacular failure. The daily fare of the people deprived of water is to devote substantial amount of their time and energy in search of water. Valuable man-hour is spent on this chore. The trouble is, waste of time in procuring water may well be a small part of the problem, considering the high level of health problems associated with drinking contaminated or disease infested water.

Indeed, while statistics may not be available on the number of people without access to clean water, it is generally believed that those mostly affected are Nigerians residing in the rural communities, which is about 70% of the population. So why has the government found it difficult to meet the expectations of the people in providing water, realising its overriding necessity? Corruption? Incompetence? Lack of capacity? Poor planning? Inadequate financial resources? The list is by no means endless. Whatever it is, the accumulation of these problems, have left the water and sanitation sub-sector has in urgent need for a thorough reform.

Morever, with a population of 140 million people, the urgency of the problem would require some kind of assistance to provide the desired relief for those most affected. It is therefore in this connection that EU, one of Nigeria's development partners, is involved in a four-tier collaboration that includes the federal, a selection of six states and their local governments with the local communities. The states that are the focus of this programme are: Anambra, Osun, Kano, Jigawa, Yobe and Cross River.

Last week Thursday and Friday at Osogbo, Osun State, the 5th National Co-ordination meeting of the European Union-assisted Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Reform (WSSSRP) was held to review the progress towards meeting the July 31st 2010 deadline for the full implementation of the scheme. Participating parties came together to evaluate their individual contributions in meeting the criteria established for a successful programme and resolve areas of concern. The EU in its project sheet, had indicated that the programme would cost about N20 billion with the European Union contributing about two third of this amount and the balance by the three tiers of government - federal, state and local government. In real terms, this amount is insufficient to meet the cost of supplying water to everyone, but as a pilot scheme, it would demonstrate the possibility that water and sanitation needs of the beneficiary local governments and small towns can be alleviated.

Indeed, the European project sheet further states that the programme plans to achieve four results:

"(1) Improved water governance at the federal level; (ii) Improved water governance at the state and local government levels in six states; (iii) Improved water service delivery to urban areas in the six states (iv) Improved water supply, sanitation and hygiene promotion services delivery in 1,400 rural communities and 60 small towns in 30 local governments in the six states."

Now, to be part of this scheme, states have to meet a set of rigorous criteria, and these are: Evidence of good governance, transparency, service delivery and accountability in management of public finance. For the 1,400 rural communities, they must demonstrate willingness to own, operate and maintain water supply and sanitation facilities by formation of Water Consumer Association as its legal representatives, in what is regarded as stringent self selecting criteria.

For the 60 small towns to participate, each must have a population ranging between 5,000-20,000, and must demonstrate the commitment to pay 5% cash for the capital cost of the project, operation and maintenance and replacement costs. Furthermore, the project must have a legal framework which permits the transfer of ownership of the facilities to Water Consumer Association of the communities. Indeed, the state, local government and communities are expected to sign legal documents and MoU for ownership transfer. The intention is that after putting together this structure for efficient water supply, the EU and other facilitators would not be part of its long-term management, rather, it would revert to the local communities and the government to drive process, for a sustainable water supply for the people.

On his part, Mr. Said Allaoui, the EU team leader for Programme Management Unit (PMU) of the scheme was reluctant to pass any judgment on the process because he believes it is too early, though he declared himself satisfied that they are right on track. "It is too early to talk about impact. It will take time, but I think that we are developing the right implementation methods, the right instruments and after sometime, that is when we shall be able to assess how effective the approach has been." What he was apparently alluding to was that if the tools and process being designed succeeds, as he thinks would happen, governments in Nigeria would have a model to copy in implementing an efficient water policy that is sustainable and cost effective.

Indeed, Mr. Allaoui's hesitation in passing judgement is clearly not premature as evidence from the mixed performance of the six states under review in meeting the criteria. For instance, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources, Jigawa State, was ruing the feedback at the meeting which indicate that contrary to his early presumption about the progress of his own state in meeting agreed criteria, they still have a lot of work to do. This was despite the rating that placed Jigawa as being amongst the three states to have fully complied with the counterpart funding requirement.

According to Alhaji Abubakar: " We are among the states that have so far fulfilled their responsibilities and that is why I am here. If we have not done anything good, I would not have come, I would have asked a subordinate to come. I thought we are the best until when I came here to see that Osun State has gone a step ahead." However, Alhaji Abubakar maintained that in Nigeria, his state has the best record in providing water to the people in the rural areas. "In the rural areas, Jigawa is the first state that has supplied most water in Nigeria."

How he got his facts is unclear, but his posture underlies the need for the coordination meeting, where the process is strictly reviewed to ensure compliance and correct defects in implementation. His state may have done the most, but the question which he may not have addressed his mind to, is whether what they have done can be sustained in the long run. But under the current scheme, Jigawa has listed the following local governments as beneficiaries: Babura, Birinim Kudu, Dutse, Kazaure, Taura, Mallam Madori, and Gumel.

Alhaji Abubakar was not the only person to scratch his head in puzzlement. Mr. Sam Adejoh Okedi, Anambra State team leader, who presented one of the best reports could not understand why his state had a minus when it came to evaluating the functionality of Due Process office. The expert opinion at the meeting held that despite the remarkable performance of Anambra in meeting its financial obligation, the only state to have this record, without a Due Process office, they could not be adjudged as leading the pack.

His arguement was that even though Anambra State came late into the programme in November, when the other states had been signed on, what they pulled off was exemplary. "Anambra came into the programme around September/October last year under Governor Peter Obi, he was the one who signed the MoU; we were the last state to have started this programme.

When the state signed the MoU, the state's technical unit, which I am the head, did not mobilise until about October, November. And within that short time, a lot of things have happened - for example the counterpart funding, that is the only state that has done that. Anambra has a due process office, it has a work contract procedure, but it is the empowerment of the due process office that is the issue - how much are they involved in the award of contracts?" In Anambra State, the following local governments are beneficiaries: Awka, Nnewi North, Anambra East, Idemili South, Ogbaru and Aguata.

Another top performer that lagged behind was Cross River State. The state's major failing was in not complying with the contract award procedure, it removed nine million naira from the 30 million from the counterpart funds in violation of the WSSSRP agreement to begin its project. Mr. Dawda Jawara, Cross River State co-ordinator, apologetic for this obvious lapse, assured that his state would put togther the necessary machinery to make it compliant. " In Cross River, there is a bottleneck in putting in place some mechanism for cost sharing, that is counterpart funding. Having said that, I think Cross River State is ready for the programme."

The star of the programme so far is Osun. The meeting confirmed the state as having more than any other state met the guidelines and by its performance, ready for implementation. Giving a report of Osun's readiness to go full blast with the programme, Dr. M. O Adelasoye, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources and Rural Development, said: " Osun State officials in the Water sector are fully prepared for a successful implementation of the WSSSRP.

The seven focal local government areas have been selected ( Oriade, Ifedayo, Olorunda, Ejigbo, Ife Central, Aiyedaade and Odo-Otin. Small town selection workshop has been held and an evaluation committee has been set up to assess applications. 352 rural communities have been selected. Contract award procedures are being concluded for sinking of boreholes in some of these communities."

For Mr. Saaondo Anom, project officer with UNICEF, the involvement of his organisation in this programme is born out of its long experience in assisting the government run successful grassroots and sanitation programme in Nigeria. He hopes that at the conclusion of the programme, the government would take over and be the driver of the project. " If any donor agency comes in to support government and they are leading, they would be doing things differently, so the best way is for government leading the process.

So that is why we are encouraging government to take leadership position and they would guide based on the policy on the water supply and sanitation that we have in the country. This reform is part of what we are taking into consideration, the monitoring and evaluation aspect of it is very strong in supporting government to have a solid base line data, so they can use it in planning of programmes and they can see where we fail and the gaps that can be closed."