By Ben Adoga
Commemorating this year’s World Water Day, the FCT Administration had revealed that it has constructed 192 rural water schemes within six months in all the six area councils making up the FCT.

The FCT Minister of State, Dr. Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu who gave this figure at the official commemoration of the UN-Water Day in Abuja said the effort was part of a emphasized measure to improve the citizens’ health status and dignity.

Following this year’s theme: “Groundwater: Making the Invisible, Visible,” Dr. Aliyu stressed that groundwater was central to surviving and adapting to climate change as well as meeting the needs of a growing population.

She also used the occasion to reveal that the FCT Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency in collaboration with Japan International Cooperation Agency and UNICEF, has trained about 60 community artisans on the maintenance of rural water supply equipment to ensure the sustainability of the facilities.

According to her, “Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Committees (WASHCOMs) are currently being established in each beneficiary community to be in charge of operation and management of the facilities.”

Aliyu emphasized that the optimal benefits that accrue from adequate water supply cannot be achieved without corresponding improved sanitation and hygiene practices, while noting that access to adequate potable water and improved sanitation and hygiene practices, play important roles in defining the human capital development of a nation.

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She said, “In recognition of this, I performed a historic declaration of a State of Emergency in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in the Federal Capital Territory. The event was a clear demonstration that the Administration has officially stepped into the national push to end open defecation, accelerate access to safe water and improved hygienic practices for all residents of the Territory, thus leaving no one behind.”

In his remarks, the Executive Director, FCT Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency, Malam Dan Hassan Ali, affirmed that the project was in fulfillment of the core mandate of RUWASSA to improve access to safe water by provision of new and rehabilitation of existing water schemes in rural communities across the Federal Capital Territory.