Leadership (Abuja)
26 February 2008
Abuja — West Africa is the worst sub-region in the world in terms of access to sanitation services, according to UNICEF Nigeria.
Mohammed El-Fatiih Yousif, the Chief of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene section, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Durban, South Africa.
Citing Nigeria as an example, Yousif said only about 36 per cent of the population had access to improved sanitation as against the 76 per cent to meet the MDG target on sanitation by 2015.
He described the gap as big, stressing the urgent need for strong commitment from the political leadership as well as putting resources and structures in place to achieve the target.
He said:" Only about 36 per cent of the people have access to sanitation. The gap is big and it is expected that access should be about 76 per cent by 2015.
"There needs to be a lot of commitment from the political leadership. A lot of resources should be put in place.
"It does not necessarily mean building latrines for households and individuals, but putting structures and capacities in place to say we can do it and we should do it".
On the absence of the Nigerian government delegation at the 2nd Africa Sanitation and Hygiene Conference (AfricaSan 2008), the UNICEF chief said: "I don't feel good that Nigeria was not there.
"We are talking about very important services which every Nigerian, and everyone in the world, needs.
"AfricaSan is a very important conference . It is a global conference. Asia did a similar conference two years ago and are on the verge of doing another one.
"Latin America did it and now Africa is doing the second of its kind. Every one came with a strong ministerial delegation and some countries sent more than a minister and heads of agencies from all over the world-UNICEF, World Bank and WHO were all here.
"We are talking about the failure of Africa to meet the MDG on sanitation and how to try to support communities and the people to improve their livelihood. So, it is very important that topics and issues on sanitation were raised and discussed", he declared.
According to him, the UN administration has sent invitations to the relevant ministers including the ministers of Agriculture and Water Resources, Health and Education, and the UNICEF had reminded them about the conference and regretted that none of them attended.
Asked whether Nigeria would meet the MDG on sanitation, Yousif said there was hope as there was a strong momentum on the MDGs going on in the world today.
"If you see the momentum that is moving on in the world now on the MDGs targets, I think there is hope. Why should countries like Nigeria fail to achieve the MDGs", he asked.
Meanwhile, Yousif said UNICEF has committed 50 million dollars (5.8 billion) to its water and sanitation
cooperation programme with the federal government for the period from 2002 to 2007.
He said the programme had been extended to 2008 with additional 20 million dollars (2.3 billion) to be invested, while negotiation for a bigger programme covering 2009 to 2012 was still ongoing.
He said the programme, which is being undertaken in 14 states, was being executed with financial assistance from EU and DFID.
He identified some of the beneficiary states as Osun, Ekiti, Anambra, Enugu, Kano and Jigawa.
The UNICEF chief said the components of the agency's programmes involve supporting the federal and state governments toward developing and implementing policies and training and empowering communities to manage their own water sources.
On sanitation, he said the agency was currently conducting a campaign on hand washing in schools to engender behaviour change, which he said, would boost the impact of the worldwide sanitation campaign as the students would take the message back home.
He said the UN was ready to continue to support Nigeria, adding:"We are desperate to work together to make a change in the lives of Nigerians".
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