Recent Policy Experience in moving from
community-based water quality surveillance
to community-wide WSPs in Nigeria
• Engr. Bishnu Timilsina,
WASH Specialist, UNICEF
Nigeria
• Dr. Obioha A. Agada,
Director Water Quality
Control & Sanitation,
FMWR
Date?/small picture
Supported by:
FGN/EU/UNICEF WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION SECTOR REFORM PROGRAMME (WSSSRP)
WSS Context in Nigeria
JMP: With well
over 151 million
inhabitants,
Nigeria is the most
populous nation in
Africa. Of these, an
estimated 103
million Nigerian
still lack basic
sanitation facilities
and 63 million do
not have access to
an improved
source of water.
EU-WSSSRP aim:
improve water governance
The EU-WSSSRP (Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Reform Programme)
aims to improve water governance at the Federal, State and LGAs levels
by mainstreaming improved and sustainable water supply and sanitation
services delivery to both urban and rural areas within the country,
through:
• Policy review and implementation;
• Assessment of roles and mandates;
• Review of human resources;
• Development of guidelines for strategic planning;
• Improved WASH Services delivery;
• Improved Budgeting and expenditure procedures.
3
EU-WSSSRP
Programme Scope
The programme covers:
• 6 States of the Federation (Cross River, Anambra, Osun, Jigawa,
Yobe and Kano)
• 25% of the LGAs in each State
• 60 Urban and Small towns
• 1000 Rural Communities
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EU-UNICEF-WSSSRP
Expected Programme Results relating to Water Quality
The programme has several linkage to safe water quality:
1. increase access to safe water supply (Result 4.e)
2. establish community-based sustainable water supply (Result 4.e)
3. strengthen the capacity of Rural WSS institutions (Result 4.c)
4. promote State-wide strategies for community mobilization and
hygiene promotion (Result 4.d)
5. put in place Monitoring and Evaluation Systems (Result 4.b)
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Water Quality Issues
in Nigeria
•
•
Bacteriological contamination
Hazardous chemical contaminants :
• natural: fluoride, cyanide;
• industry man-made: lead (related to
gold mining), arsenic (mining);
•
Iron is a common nuisance in nearly all
groundwater sources
•
Turbidity during rainy season
•
Salinity in the coastal areas
Water Quality in
Nigeria: regulatory framework
Earlier regulatory framework based on :
•
EPA 1999 and Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) 2003:
standards not widely used
• WHO guidelines 2004
In 2004-2005 a rapid assessment of drinking-water quality was
undertaken in the Federal Republic of Nigeria (published by WHOUNICEF in 2010):
Outcome: delivery of bacteriologically safe water achieved
at 73% of all water points,
ranging from 51% for protected dug wells
to 86% for borehole & tubewells)
Water Quality in
Nigeria: regulatory framework
• The Rapid Assessment exercise stimulated the National
Council on Water Resources to urge the Federal Ministry of
Health, with the Standards Organisation of Nigeria to develop
Nigerian Standard for Drinking Water Quality (NIS 554)
• A Technical Committee with broad representation of Health,
Water Resources, SON, State water providers, Food and Drug
Administration, Consumer Protection Council, Universities,
and International Sector Support Agencies drafted the
Standard
• Nigerian Standard for Drinking Water Quality was published in
2007
• The Challenge: promote knowledge of and
compliance with NIS 554
Nigerian Standard for
Drinking Water Quality 2007
• 5.5.1 All water service providers (including State Water Agencies) and
community water committees shall develop a Water Safety Plan …
• 5.5.2 ….a programme of upgrading (which may include capital investment
or training) shall be initiated to ensure that the drinking- water supply
meets the targets.
• 5.5.3 State Ministry of Water Resources shall support water services
providers…… in establishing and implementing Water Safety Plans.
• 5.5.4 Water Safety Plans shall be validated by the Drinking Water Quality
Surveillance agency and enforced by inspector for DWQ Surveillance.
• 5.5.5 For community water committees managing on-site drinking water
facilities, the development of Water Safety Plans shall be done in
collaboration with Local Government Authorities (LGAs) and committees
shall conduct regular sanitary inspections of the water facilities.
Water Quality Standards
promoting knowledge and compliance
• Government of Nigeria initiated Community Based Water
Quality Surveillance and Household Water Handling, Testing
and Treatments (2009)
Coregroup led by Federal Ministry of Water Resources:
Department for Water Quality Control & Sanitation
Includes:
• Concept note/basic framework:
• Institutionalize WQ surveillance
• Raise awareness and ownership of community on WQ
• Train on WQ monitoring and HHWT
The Basic Framework on Community Based Water
Quality Surveillance, and Household Water Handling,
Testing and Treatments, May 2009,
• institutionalize surveillance systems for monitoring drinking water
quality
• ensure reliable and useful data collection on drinking water quality
and increase the sense of ownership and alertness of the people on
water quality issues and waterborne diseases.
• Monitor and carry out surveillance of all drinking water sources
• Institutionalize community participation and involvement for water
quality monitoring
• build capacity of the Communities to own field test kits and take full
Operation &Monitoring (O&M) responsibility for water quality
monitoring of drinking water sources in their areas.
• train and empower households on basic water treatment methods
• apply intervention on safe water handling and good storage
practices at household level
A simple filter using indigenous materials made by the participants of a ToT programme
on water quality and household water treatment in Awka, Anambra State (May 2009)
Community Based Water Quality
Surveillance, and HHWT
• Pilots on-going in 6 states:
Niger, Oyo, Ebonyi, Cross-River,
Taraba and Zamfara
SHAWN states to be included:
Bauchi, Benue, Jigawa and Katsina
• Capacity building at various levels
• Risk assessment through sanitary surveys
Progress made so far
• Concept Note prepared by the National
Coregroup members and
• shared and discussed with Stakeholders in
four regional workshops held at Kano, Sokoto,
Enugu and Lagos  Concept Note revised
• National Core-group on Water Quality formed
• Zamfara, Niger, Taraba, Ebonyi, Cross River
and Oyo States emerged as pilot States
Wednesday, April 08, 2015
Progress made so far
• Advocacy visits made to the six pilot States
• Pilot Local Governments and Communities selected by
the States
• Sensitization workshop held for Local Government
Chairmen of the pilot Local Governments
• Officers of the States and Local Governments trained as
trainers
• Each Local Government on pilot issued with Wagtech
Porta-kits with incubator and various numbers of H2S
vials and water treatment chemicals (Pur and
aquatabs)
• Each pilot State issued with Wagtech Porta-lab
Wednesday, April 08, 2015
Federal Ministry of Water Resources
& EU-UNICEF-WSSSRP
Giving further boost to water quality management through:
1. Strategy for introduction of WSP including
2. National Action points
3. Draft State Action Plans
4. Selection of Pilot LGAs/communities for WSP
5. Recommendations for support by sector support agencies
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Water Quality in
Nigeria: capacity building
Regulatory Framework/
State & LGA
Community-based
Water Safety Plan
Approach
WSP outcomes:
• Risk Assessment
• Priority setting
• Action Plan
leading to:
M&E,
consultation on
corrective action
Community based
Surveillance
• improving WQ and
• better functioning
of water supply assets
• greater sustainability
WHO Guidelines
Legislation in Place
Introduction
The guideline
requirements (Chapter 2)
(Chapter 1)
Nigerian Standard
for Drinking
Water
FRAMEWORK FOR SAFE DRINKING
WATER
Quality
2007
Public health
context
Health-based
targets (Chapter 3)
and health outcome
SUPPORTING
INFORMATION
Microbial aspects
(Chapters 7 and 11)
Water Safety Plans (Chapter 4)
System
assessment
Monitoring
Management and
communication
Surveillance
(Chapter 5)
Application of the Guidelines in specific circumstances
(Chapter 6)
Large buildings, Emergencies and disasters, Travellers, Desalination systems,
Packaged drinking water, Food production, Planes and ships
Chemical aspects
(Chapters 8 and 12)
Radiological
aspects
(Chapter 9)
Acceptability
aspects
(Chapter 10)
Necessary levers for
WSP Scale-up
•
•
•
•
•
•
WSP is explicit in regulations or high level
policy commitment
Successful WSP implementation (pilots)
Evidence on cost-effectiveness and impacts
Networks of committed partners
Learning institutions that can serve as
training centres (e.g. universities)
Harmonized cooperation among key sector
stakeholders, development agencies and
multilaterals, professional bodies
Near future actions
• Holding a national conference on drinking water quality
• Further generating High-Level Advocacy and
Commitment
• Establishing WSP task forces at Federal and State level
• Supporting policy development/review of legislation at
all administrative levels
• Capacity Building at State, LGA, WASH
Committee/Water Consumer/Service Provider and
Community level
• Advocacy, Documentation, Learning and Knowledge
Management, Evaluation
• Support to continued development of national water
laboratories and local water quality testing capacities