No fewer than 120 stakeholders on behavioural change, hygiene promotion and sustainability participated in the Katsina State Government organised 3-day training.
Alhaji Musa Funtua, the Commissioner for Water Resources while declaring the event open on Wednesday in Katsina, said the training was to support the Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet programme.
“The training, which is under the Sustainable Urban and Rural Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (SURWASH) programme, came at the right time.
“The programme is a World Bank project, aimed at ensuring the cleanliness of rural communities, and also promote the hygiene of these areas,’’ Funtua said.
The Commissioner said that for such a programme to sustain, it had to reach the grassroots, saying “that is the reason for the training of the trainees so that they can also step it down to grassroots”.
According to him, the state government, under Gov. Aminu Masari had spent a lot in the sector, especially through the provision of clean and potable water in the state.
He added that out of the seven benefitting states for the SURWASH programme, Katsina State was declared the best, in environmental sanitation and provision of potable drinking water.
Dr Sama’ila Mua’azu-Bawa, the SURWASH Programme Coordinator in the state, said the objectives of the training were also to promote sanitation in the communities and also improve water supply in the rural and urban areas.
According to him, the training was to sensitise the major stakeholders, especially the local governments, on their engagement in hygiene promotion.
“At local governments, you know we have the Water and Sanitation Hygiene Services (WASH), that is why we invited those Directors from the 34 local government areas.
” Same goes for the Desk Officers from Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet Project and also the Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) who serve as stakeholders in the programme.”, he said.
Earlier in his remarks, the desk officer of the Clean Nigeria: Use The Toilet programme, Alhaji Isiyaku Idris said the success recorded so far in the project, in the State, was due to the commitment of the steering committee, headed by the Commissioner for Water Resources in the state.
