WaterAid's plans in Nigeria: 2006-2011

While the Nigerian Government has publicly committed to prioritising water and sanitation services it faces massive problems in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of halving the proportions of people without access to safe water and sanitation between 1990 and 2015.

In its new strategy running from 2006 to 2011 WaterAid sets out its plans and activities in Nigeria to help achieve these targets.

The key aims are to:

• Help 84,000 people gain access to water, sanitation and hygiene education every year by 2011
• Support local partner organisations to raise their own funds, while keeping a strong advisory role on how these funds are spent to ensure a further 90,000 people gain access to water and 85,000 to sanitation every year by 2011

Thirteen year old Sa'a Ali from Fikayi in Bauchi State, Nigeria

Credit: WaterAid / Suzanne Porter

"I have to collect water three or four times a day for my family," says Sa'a whose choice of water source is currently limited to a river nearly an hour away or a pond 20 minutes away. Both are polluted. "It is my duty to make sure the container for water at home isn't empty. When I am not collecting water I do the grinding to make morning and afternoon food. When my mother collects the water, I go and collect firewood or do my guinea flour grinding. We take it in turns in the day.

I always try to collect water with my friends or my sisters, Toure or Hajara. It is a long way to come and I am afraid on my own. I get afraid from the distance, being alone, animals and snakes. Water, wood, grinding. My work, it is my life. What else is there?"

As the responsibility for water and sanitation is being shifted from central to local government, WaterAid has committed to work with 30 local governments in future to build their capabilities to carry out their water and sanitation work effectively.

Support is vital as currently they have limited authority, funding and capacity, which is constraining their ability to meet their obligations. In 2004 for example 25,000 handpumps were purchased and distributed to local governments without any prior discussions. Virtually all lacked the budgets to sink the wells for the pumps.

In the past political bias has also meant that many projects in Nigeria were inequitable and excluded the poor. WaterAid will therefore increase its influencing and lobbying work to ensure money is spent in the most appropriate ways to reach the very poorest people. This will include mapping the existing facilities so that donors and the Government can plan new projects in a coordinated way where they are most needed; or where possible, rehabilitate broken facilities. To assist this process the MDGs will be localised and each area will work towards a specific target.

WaterAid will also lobby local and national organisations to strengthen their own water, sanitation and hygiene work. It will focus on building the capacity of 24 partner organisations and two main networks. A media network will also be developed to raise awareness of the issues in the country.

Awareness is particularly vital in raising funds for water and sanitation. The Government's Director of Water stated in 2004 "I have 50,000 communities needing water but this year we could fund projects in just 2809 of them." This statement is not surprising. Currently the annual water budget is $54m, but this needs to increase by $266 million a year to reach the MDGs. Yet even now poor coordination and confusion over roles and responsibilities means that only 56% of the budget is actually spent. Years of changing governments have also left the country in huge amounts of debt, with annual repayments amounting to $1.7billion a year. This is three times the education budget, nine times the health budget and over 31 times the water budget. In 2005 WaterAid campaigned through the Global Campaign Against Poverty (known in the UK as Make Poverty History) for debt cancellation alongside calls for more and better financing for water and sanitation services.

WaterAid's focus on the poorest and most vulnerable in society will continue by ensuring that women, the elderly, disabled and those living with HIV/AIDS are included in projects. This is vital as despite women being the main providers of water, in many parts of the country their increasing poverty and powerlessness is also hindering the success of projects.

As the rural poor move to urban areas looking for work more and more end up living in unplanned settlements without any services. WaterAid has further plans to help these communities, especially in small towns, to build and manage their own affordable water and sanitation systems using the most appropriate technology.

The country also faces significant challenges over issues of poor water quality and conflicts over water use and management. WaterAid will therefore include water resource management within all its projects to address the issues of depletion and contamination. To date some projects involving rainwater harvesting have been successfully carried out and this will also continue.