Some residents of Agbede Olosugbo community in Ikorodu North LCDA area of Lagos have been trained as Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Committee, WASHCOM, members, to oversee, monitor, supervise and maintain water facility projects in the area.
The training facilitated by the Lagos State Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, held at the Palace of Baale Agbede Olusogbo, a core hard to reach community in Ikorodu was organized by an NGO, WaterAid Nigeria with the support of Cummins under its Improving Access to Water, Hygiene and Sanitation project in Lagos and Abuja.
The Facilitator from the Ministry, Mr Tosin Aremu, said the training objective was to enable community members take ownership of the water facility projects donated to the community by WaterAid Nigeria to ensure sustainability.
Mr Aremu who spoke on topics such as Financial Management, Conflict Mitigation, Maintenance culture, Teamwork, urged participants to promote good hygiene practices in the community.
The Project Manager, a Sanitation and Hygiene Officer, Mr Dare Oduluyi, encouraged residents on community participation in WASH initiatives to track functionality of WASH service and report any issues affecting effective water supply.
“This management structure will be responsible for managing and overseeing water supply systems and ensuring their effective maintenance, promoting good hygiene practices, maintaining and monitoring sanitation facilities and practices like open defecation, encouraging community participation in WASH initiatives, tracking WASH service functionality and reporting issues, handling funds for WASH-related activities and maintenance, and addressing water-related conflicts within the community”
According to Mr Oduluyi, WaterAid Nigeria aims to reach over one hundred and seventy six thousand people in Ikorodu North LCDA, Onigbongbo, Orile Agege and Mushin with WASH service with beneficiaries from public schools and rural communities.
“This will invariably increase project ownership, increase the potential for the rehabilitated facilities to continue serving the community for a long time”
The Program Support Assistant, Mrs Aniema Bassey, who presented the document agreement to the WASHCOM leadership, said the project in Lagos will leverage on the successes of the KC-SHIP, PepsiCo and LDSC interventions to strengthen WASH Service delivery in the state.
“Over three years, WaterAid aims to reach 176,547 people in target locations of Ikorodu North, Onigbongbo, Orile-Agege and Mushin LCDAs with water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services. Water supply services to 6,500 people, sanitation services for 4, 547 people and hygiene services for 165,500 people at selected schools and communities”
Some of the WASHCOM members chaired by Mr Olawuyi Ajayi, commended the efforts of WaterAid Nigeria at complementing government efforts at providing safe and accessible water and sanitation services to people in hard to reach communities with a promise to protect the facility from vandals.
“We are thankful for this opportunity to learn, relearn and unlearn, we will use the knowledge from this training to educate and sensitize residents of Agbede Olosugbo on the five hygiene behavioral changes, maintenance culture and find ways to generate revenue for the maintenance of the facility when completed so we can enjoy water supply for a long time, because it has really been a challenge to this community before this intervention, we are grateful to WaterAid Nigeria and Cummins for coming into our domain despite being a core hard to reach community in Ikorodu North LCDA”
The Water Facility which will be constructed within the Baale Palace is expected to be completed by March 2026.
Reporting byYemisi Dada