The Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, said the Federal Government would release N10 billion for states for the construction and rehabilitation of water schemes in its bid to end covid-19 in the country.
He also said the government would hire Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) volunteers to educate the populace on importance of hand washing and personal hygiene.
He said that the volunteers, from each state would work for three months in all communities, adding that nation was also distributing contactless hand washing stations in public places.
“We are going to be committing N10 billion to this emergency phase that we are with COVID-19, to be shared among the states of the federation and it include the rehabilitation and construction of new water schemes, mostly borehole- based schemes.
“We are also going to be hiring WASH volunteers for about three months from each state to be going to communities to educate them on the need for personal hygiene at all times.
“In addition, we are also looking at contactless hand washing facilities; we are also going to be distributing some in public areas, our targets are markets, motor parks.’’
The minister who made this known in Abuja said the ministry has set up a COVID-19 WASH response committee along with all the commissioners of water resources of the 36 states as members.
He said that the plan was centred on how the Federal Government would support states through the N500 billion economic stimulus package introduced by the President Muhammadu Buhari.
“As you know, all the campaigns that have been going on to fight COVID-19 has been on issues of sanitation, wash your hands, wear your masks, wash your hands in running water with soap, etc, that’s the main focus, and then when you are talking of sanitation, you have to talk about water.
“We are going to be building and rehabilitating some water schemes, especially in urban slums and in public areas like markets, motor parks etc.
“We are just waiting for the approval of the National Assembly and the budget releases for us to be able to start working on that.”
