Country background
- Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa; high population growth partially outweighs progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Policies and strategies
- Development priorities and poverty reduction strategies are guided by the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) from 2004, the Presidential Seven Point Agenda and the Nigeria Vision 2020. NEEDS and Vision 2020 recognize that water supply and sanitation are central to the Government's mission of poverty reduction, and seek to meet significantly improved access to sanitation. A new NEEDS is about to be issued, covering the period 2008-2012. It is currently being harmonized with the Presidential Seven Point Agenda and the Vision 2020.
- In Nigeria, numerous policy guidelines for water resource management exist. Some of the policies associated with water resources (and sanitation) include the National Water Supply and Sanitation Policy (2000), its revised National Water Sanitation Policy (2004) to provide a framework for sustainable development and management of appropriate sanitation services and hygiene education, and the National Water Resources Bill of 2008.
- Programming for sanitation is primarily guided by the 2004 National Water Sanitation Policy, the National Environmental Sanitation Policy (NESP, 2005) and a new Strategy for Scaling-Up Rural Sanitation from 2007.
- A new comprehensive National Water and Sanitation Policy is currently under development.
Institutions
- The Federal Ministry of Water Resources (FMWR) has the overall responsibility for formulation of policies and master plans guiding the water supply sub-sector towards ensuring adequate and sustainable water supply.
- State Water Agencies (SWAs) are responsible for establishment, operation, quality control, and maintenance of urban and semi-urban water supply in each state.
- Local Government Authorities (LGAs) are responsible for the establishment, operation, and maintenance of rural water supply schemes and sanitation facilities in their areas. Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agencies (RWSSAs) have been established to monitor and coordinate all activities in the rural sub-sector, carry out training and support capacity building activities at LGA and community level, and to implement the provision of safe water supply.
- Sanitation does not have a clear institutional home. Sanitation programming is guided by the Federal Ministry of Environment, yet the Federal Ministry of Water Resources (FMWR) has responsibility for water and sanitation. Other federal ministries with important sanitation agendas include the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) for standards, quality control and water/sanitation diseases surveillance, the Federal Ministry of Education (FME) for WASH in schools, and the Federal Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development for infrastructure in urban areas. This diversion of sector responsibility has resulted in conflict and hampers the progress on implementation of policies and programmes.
- The WASH sector in Nigeria presently has a reform agenda that seeks to improve public private partnerships for greater effectiveness in the sector, especially for service contracts with the SWAs.
- Coordination: The National Task Group on Sanitation (NTGS), comprising of the relevant ministries and agencies, development partners and representatives of the National Civil Society Network on Water and Sanitation (NEWSAN), was inaugurated in 2002 and since then chaired by the Federal Ministry of Water Resources. NTGS was strongly involved in developing the sanitation policies and strategies mentioned above.
