The Imo State government has expressed gratitude to the World Bank on its inclusion in the $700 million Sustainable Urban Rural Water Supply Sanitation Hygiene (SURWASH) programme.
The bank included seven states in the programme (Imo, Delta, Ekiti, Gombe, Katsina, Kaduna and Plateau). In a statement, on Tuesday , the Special Adviser to the governor on Public Enlightenment, Eze Ugochukwu, expressed confidence that the project would be safely executed and managed in the state, commending the World Bank for including the state. The statement disclosed that the Federal Government had received the funds on behalf of benefitting states.
The SURWASH Programme National Coordinator, Abdulhamid Gwaram, had, during a meeting of Environmental and Social Safeguard, on Monday, in Abuja, urged benefitting states and implementing agencies to demonstrate commitment towards driving the programme successfully.
He said: “They are supposed to be in the driver’s seat. That is what we are pushing them to do. We know there is a challenge of capacity. That’s what we are doing here today to expose them to issues of environmental safeguard and occupational health, as well as safety.”
According to Gwaram, the programme was part of social safeguard concerns towards ensuring that low-security risk areas were targeted, calling for awareness and understanding of the beneficial parts of the project.
He disclosed that the programme was tailored to provide six million Nigerians with basic safely managed drinking water services and improved support for 1.4 million others in improved access to sanitation services.
Gwaram also hinted that the project was geared towards developing improved WASH services in 2,000 schools and 500 communities in achieving the Open Defecation Free (ODF) project.
He admonished that the World Bank insists that all implementing partners must adhere to the environmental and safety standards.
