By Joseph ETTA in Calabar
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in collaboration with the European Union (EU) and the government of Cross River have concluded phase two of the Water Supply Sanitation Sector Reform Programme (WSSSRP) in Cross River.
The program which was aimed at ensuring portable water supply in Yakurr and Boki Local Government Area of Cross River commenced in 2013.
Mr Ibrahim Kante, Chief of Field Office, UNICEF Enugu stated this in Calabar at a workshop to mark the end of the second phase of the programme.
He said that funding for the program had ended though they hoped to endure the sustainability of the gains recorded.
According to him, while the programme was on in both LGAs, they were able to drill over 800 boreholes in different communities to the tune of N2 billion which helped in ensuring that both LGAs were declared Open Defecation Free (ODF).
He said though they were able to achieve that much it did not come without some challenges which ranged from the technical incapacity of the Cross River government, to the delay in implementation due to the delay in the release of counterpart funds.
“We also had challenges with the weather conditions and topography of some of the rural communities that we needed to drill.
“You have to try a couple of locations to get drilling done to get high yield and sometimes, the contractors are difficult to deal with, so they delay the process and the quality of work done poorly sometimes. But I can tell you that the two LGAs we chose are the most deprived when it comes to access to water” he said.
However, he assured the communities that even though the funding for the phase had ended, they would not be abandoned by UNICEF completely as they would continue to render technical and other forms of support to them.
Similarly, Mr Michael Faulsen, the Water Sanitation and Hygiene Programme (WASH) manager, UNICEF said the project looked at consolidating the gains of the preceding project WSSSRP 1 which aimed at providing potable water in the state.
Faulsen said the project had the component of sanitation that looked at open defecation in the state.
“We realized that the way people defecate indiscriminately in open is a vehicle for diseases, so if you give safe water and people still defecate indiscriminately in the open, you won’t achieve the health benefit of the intervention.
“So a component of the project is to work with the communities to strive to ensure that the communities were open defecation free” he said.
