The implementation of a World Bank project in Gombe State has commenced its activities with a sensitization tour of Gombe Local Government Areas by the State Project Coordinator, Engineer Usman Aliyu.
The Project Coordinator was received by the Caretaker Chairman of the LGA, Alhaji Aliyu Usman Haruna who pledged his support and cooperation for the success of the project which he said will impact positively on the lives of his people. The tour will also take the coordinator to the other ten LGAs of the state.
The six year innovative project (2021-2027) known as: Gombe State Sustainable Urban and Rural Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (SURWASH), is targeted at improving water supply, sanitation and hygiene services for communities in the state.
Though some of the components of the projects have already been completed in four pilot Local Government Areas of Yamaltu-Deba, Kwami, Gombe and Akko, the Project Coordinator said, the projects are to be implemented in conjunction with three agencies of the State Government.
The agencies are, Gombe State Water Board, Gombe State Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASSA) and Gombe State Sanitation and Environmental Protection Agency (GOSEPA).
Engineer Usman said, six motorized boreholes have already been rehabilitated in Idi, Kamara and the Specialist Hospital areas of Gombe LGA while toilet facilities have been constructed for the public in Karangada, Doma and Barunde areas in Akko, Yamaltu-Deba and Gombe LGA’s. There is also a rehabilitated toilet facility in the Specialist Hospital and Science Secondary School Gombe.
He stated also that nineteen boreholes have been rehabilitated with about fifty expected to be drilled this year alone. He added that most of the projects executed under RUWASA are in the rural areas.
“We are targeting the construction of about 2,000 toilets for the poorest of the poor in the state. We’ve selected communities for Gombe municipal and very soon, in the next one or two weeks, activities will commence”, he stated.
He called on the people to utilise the facilities properly by owning and maintaining them so that the government will be encouraged to construct and rehabilitate more. “It is not about having the toilets, but utilising them effectively”, he advised.
The SURWASH project is a financing state-led loan intervention initiated by the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Water Resources in collaboration with the World Bank.
It is designed to support the implementation of the national action plan for the revitalization of Nigeria’s WASH sector in seven states of Delta, Ekiti, Gombe, Imo, Kaduna, Katsina and Plateau after fulfilling the eligibility and readiness criteria set out by the World Bank and the federal level.
Under its Programme for Results Components, participating states are expected to fund projects from their state budgets before reimbursement by the World Bank.
