By Stephen Adeleye.
The Federal Ministry of Water Resources (RMWR) has flagged off a two-day workshop on ”Water Safety Plan (WSP)” for water providers in Kogi State to ensure a safe drinking water for all.
Mrs Rukayat Bako, the Deputy Director, Quality Control and Sanitation of the ministry who declared the event opened on Tuesday in Lokoja, said that it was aimed at ensuring safe and sustainable water for all.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the workshop was for officials of ministries and agencies of water resources from the six states of the North Central.
Bako noted the workshop was organised to build the capacity of the water service providers on the concept, process and techniques of water safety planing.
She added that it would also help the participants to understand the key benefits for effective implementation of water planing and the identify of it the expertise needed to design and implement an effective water safety planing.
”We are here in Kogi to train our water providers under the ministry’s Community Water Safety Plan (CWSP) program which is a very essential aspect of water supply.
”We are not satisfy with the level of access to quality potable water supply and that is why we are making more efforts to ensure that the state ministries and water agencies are adequately trained.
She advised the state governors in the North Central zone to priotise water supply in their various states.
The Director also counselled rural dwellers to treat their water by boiling before drinking.
A resource person, Dr Grace Oluwasanya, of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), said the workshop was meant to raise champions on WSP.
According to her, water safety plan is a plan to ensure the safety of drinking water through the use of a comprehensive risk assessment and risk management approach that encompasses all steps in water supply from catchment to consumer.
”My expectation from this workshop is to be able to raise champions that will be able to drive the development and implement water safety planing in their various organsations at state and local levels.
”The objective is to be able to provide safe drinking water to everyone of the over 170 million Nigerians and still counting, ” Oluwasanya said.
The expert stressed that one of the key solutions to challenges facing quality water supply in Nigeria was for government at all levels to adopt WSP.
”WSP is a very proactive, preventive and comprehensive method of ensuring safe drinking water and that is why we are here.
”We want to change the mindset of the people about how we treat and use water, and ensure a safe drinking water for all, ” she said.
Also speaking, Dr Dickson Kadiri, Asst. Director, Laboratory Services, FMWR, said the participants would be trained on the modules of water safety plan to secure water that the people drink.
He noted that water management and diseases were directly related, stressing that contamination of drinking water could result to various types of diseases, especially among children.
”So, we are here to step down the process of water safety plan to those government agencies and ministries so that they can cascade it in their respective states as away of reducing water borne diseases,” he said.
(NAN)
