FG, IHE Delft Institute sign MoU to address sanitation crisis
MoU
By Tosin Kolade
Abuja, Feb. 21, 2020 (NAN) The Federal Government and IHE Delft Institute for Water Education in Netherlands have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to train senior and middle level manpower to address sanitation crisis in the country.
The partnership, open to all Nigerian Universities and involves strengthening the National Water Resources Institute (NWRI), Kaduna Capacity Network Centres across the six geopolitical zones of the country.
The programme will run at the centres in the University of Maiduguri, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, University of Ilorin, University of Abeokuta, Nnamdi Azikiwe University and University of Calabar and in Delft, Netherlands.
It also includes the transfer of Masters of Science Sanitation programme curriculum to the selected universities and will ensure their participation in the Global Sanitation Graduate School (GSGS).
The Minister of Water Resources, Mr Suleiman Adamu said that limited knowledge, capacity and capability on wastewater and faecal sludge management and reuse remained key bottleneck to sanitation attainment in the country.
He said improving the technical capacity of water agencies at the federal, state, and local government levels was a crucial objective of the National Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Action Plan to revitalise the water, sanitation and hygiene sector.
“Strengthening human capacity for sanitation delivery is one of the key building blocks that will get us to meeting the action plan by 2030.
“Not only must we achieve the target to end open defecation and ensure sanitation for all; we must also sustain the target.’’
Dr Peter Cookey, IHE Deflt said the institute as a foremost water and sanitation graduate training centre was honoured to be part of efforts to meet the WASH targets.
According to him, the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to prioritise WASH and end open defecation by 2025, while achieving universal access to water supply is timely and laudable.
“However, the challenge of knowledge, skills and capacity availability and adequacy is a hindrance to the SDG six targets, not just in Nigeria but in many nations globally.
“This is an area that IHE Deflt has developed a niche in as we have been training water and Sanitation practitioners at graduate and professional levels for 60 years.’’
Cookey said the institute offer professional graduate diploma in core capacity areas for water resources management, water supply, water quality, governance, sanitation, pollution among others.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Global Sanitation Graduate School is managed by the IHE, Delft Netherlands, with the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, formerly known as UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education is the largest international graduate water education facility in the world and is based in Delft, Netherlands.
Since 1957, the institute has provided graduate education to more than 23,000 water professionals from over 190 countries, and is a flagship institute in the UN-Water family. (NAN)
TAK/JEY/GY
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Edited by Johnson Eyiangho/Grace Yussuf