Minister for Water Resources, Government of Nigeria
NIGERIA IS A nation of great people with an estimated population of 191 million as of 2018. Located in sub-Saharan Africa, it is a large country with tremendous natural and human resources. However, Nigeria faces a critical challenge in its Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector. While it has made significant progress in improving national access to better water supply from 40 per cent in 1990 to 69 per cent in 2015, there has been a great decline in access to piped water on premises from 32 per cent in 1990 to 7 per cent in 2015, in urban areas. The national access to basic sanitation stands at a meagre 33 per cent, with an estimated 47 million persons practising open defecation, the second highest globally.
During the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) era, the country made several efforts towards improving access to sanitation. These included the adoption of the Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach to scale up sanitation in rural areas. National and sub-national specific roadmaps were also developed towards the close of the MDGs era for the elimination of open defecation in the country by 2025. The operationalization of the roadmaps across the country was, however, slow and inconsistent. A new programme, Partnership for Expanded Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (PEWASH), was initiated in 2016 to improve the situation and bring sector actors together.
Nigeria and India share similarities, which include not only a large population, but also a decentralized government structure and challenges in the WASH sector. This has also unfortunately led to our countries occupying top positions on the global open defecation ladder. However, India’s ongoing Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) has led to an incredible reduction in the number of people practising open defecation in just five years, and the country is on its way to becoming Open Defecation Free (ODF) by 2019. This has greatly challenged Nigeria, as it is set to become the next global leader in practising open defecation once India meets her target.
Nigeria prides herself on a number of achievements and triumphs globally. But the trophy for open defecation is not one we are looking forward to having. The success of SBM is an inspiring model for Nigeria and plans were already being made for a Nigerian delegation to visit India when I received an invitation to the Mahatma Gandhi International Sanitation Convention (MGISC), scheduled to be held in September–October 2018.
My participation in the MGISC was truly inspiring. It afforded an opportunity to interact with delegates from across the world and provided a platform for me to share Nigeria’s modest effort at financing rural sanitation. Most importantly, I was able to get the real feel of SBM and the dramatic change it has wrought in India’s sanitation story within so short a time. I was awed and sold.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for water and sanitation are quite ambitious compared to the MDGs. The cross-cutting nature of water and sanitation means that they directly and indirectly impact the achievement of the other SDGs. The huge population of India hitherto practising open defecation, which has been drastically reduced through the Swachh Bharat Mission, will contribute significantly to the attainment of SDG 6 globally.
Since becoming Nigeria’s Minister for Water Resources in 2015, I had wanted an initiative that would create a mass movement, with every citizen effectively mobilized for action towards achieving SDGs 6.1 and 6.2 on water and sanitation. While our ODF roadmap indicated rolling out a campaign at the national and sub-national level, a clear-cut strategy for carrying this out was not in place. My Ministry, in collaboration with our development partners, has been in the process of developing this strategy. A special unit within the Ministry was created for this purpose.
From the MGISC, I have come to the realization that focusing on such a high priority programme in mission-mode will make the campaign more effective and efficient. The Nigeria ODF campaign is now being remodelled on the same lines as SBM.
Like India, Nigeria has been able to demonstrate a high-level political will for the WASH sector. In November 2018, President Muhammadu Buhari declared a state of emergency and launched a new National Action Plan for the sector. The plan has five components – governance, sustainability, sanitation, funding and financing, and monitoring and evaluation. It proposes an eighteen-month Emergency Phase, five-year Recovery Phase and thirteen-year Revitalization Strategy for the sector. It also proposes the establishment of a National WASH Fund to incentivize reform and infrastructure revitalization.
In February 2019, the federal governments of India and Nigeria collaborated, with the support of international development agencies, and organized a study tour to help Nigerian delegates gain insights into how the application of SBM can help achieve similar sanitation targets in the Nigerian context. The study mission, which lasted almost two weeks, presented learning opportunities that could be potentially fruitful to Nigeria’s national roadmap for becoming an ODF country by 2025.
SBM stands to inspire other countries, as it has done mine, and is a testimony to the global community that SDGs are achievable, provided there is strong political resolve, the strategy is appropriate, resources are adequately deployed and the population is sufficiently mobilized.
Looking ahead, it is my hope that, following India’s example, Nigeria will not only be able to end the practice of open defecation among her populace, but will also become the next shining example to countries in the African region and across the world. It is my hope that the bilateral relationship between Nigeria and India will be further strengthened as we eradicate open defecation together.