By Jovitta Iorshase
The Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Prof. Joseph Utsev has assured that the Federal and State governments would partner to actualize the dream of a clean and safe nation.
Prof. Utsev gave the assurance last Friday, when he played host to the Benue State Commissioner for Water Resources, Environment and Climate Change, Hon. Ugwu Odoh, who called on him in his office.
According to a statement signed by the Information officer, Ministry of Water Resources, Environment and Climate Change, Mr. Enokela Sule Onum and made available to The Voice, the Minister who assured the Commissioner of support stated that, it was to achieve a clean and healthy nation that his Ministry and development partners have been making conscious efforts to implement policies and programmes aimed at promoting personal hygiene among Nigerians through construction of modern toilet facilities in rural and urban centres.
“There is sustained campaign and sensitization on the need for people to imbibe the culture of using decent toilets and desist from open defecation to achieve the open defecation free target by 2025.”
The statement quoted the commissioner as saying that the visit was to seek partnership between Benue and the Federal government in the area of water and sanitation to enable Benue people live in clean and safe environment and synergize for greater development of the sector in the state.
It stated, “though Benue State was unable to benefit from Federal interventions and development partners such as PWASH programmes, due to the failure of the previous administration to pay counterpart contributions, the Alia administration is interested in paying the counterpart contributions on projects that will benefit the state”.
