Urban Sanitation and Financing Strategies for Wastewater Management in Nigeria
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Urban Sanitation and Financing Strategies for Wastewater Management in Nigeria 1 Awoyoola Rohees and 2Engr. Oyebode O.J Abstract The percentage of the population who uses improved sources of drinking water is known as access to water, while access to sanitation refers to the percentage of the population who uses improved sanitation facilities. Household connections, public stand pipes, boreholes, covered wells, and springs are examples of improved drinking water in Nigeria, while improved sanitation includes public sewer or septic system, pour flush latrines, ventilated improved pit latrines, and pit latrines with slabs. As a result, aim to provide appropriate, secure, improved, sustainable, and accessible potable water and adequate, safe, improved, sustainable, and accessible sanitation to all Nigerians in an affordable and sustainable manner through a cost-sharing formula between government and the beneficiary on expenditure and operating costs. This paper is focused on urban sanitation and how financial planning will foster the wastewater management in Nigeria. The result is achieved by evaluating the challenges in sanitation, in financing wastewater management and the issues that arise when wastewater is treated. The paper also covers the suggested solution and suggest some financial strategies to cater for wastewater management. Keywords Urban Sanitation, Financing, Wastewater, Nigeria 1.0 Introduction According to the National Policy on Water and Sanitation (2000), The percentage of the population who uses improved sources of drinking water is known as access to water, while access to sanitation refers to the percentage of the population who uses improved sanitation facilities. Household connections, public stand pipes, boreholes, covered wells, and springs are examples of improved drinking water in Nigeria, while improved sanitation includes public sewer or septic system, pour flush latrines, ventilated improved pit latrines, and pit latrines with slabs. As a result, aim to provide appropriate, secure, improved, sustainable, and accessible potable water and adequate, safe, improved, sustainable, and accessible sanitation to all Nigerians in an affordable and sustainable manner through a cost-sharing formula between government and the beneficiary on expenditure and operating costs, according to the National Water Policy (2004). This implies that there will be a real challenge for the policy implementation as regards careful balance between affordable tariffs for the poor and a high degree of cost recovery. According to the National Water Resources Management Policy (NWRMP) 2003, The standards and activities relating to the collection, elimination, or disposal of human excreta, household waste water, and refuse as they affect people and the environment are referred to as sanitation. Appropriate health and hygiene knowledge and behavior, as well as acceptable, accessible, and long-term sanitation facilities, are all part of good sanitation. The minimum acceptable basic level of sanitation must meet the following requirements: be associated with appropriate health and hygiene awareness and behavior; provide a system for disposing of human excreta, household waste water, and refuse in an acceptable and affordable manner for users; be safe, hygienic, and easily accessible, with no unacceptable environmental impact. In Nigeria, coverage definitions in terms of water supply and sanitation are described as efforts that will lead to increased services nationwide to meet the nation's level of socio-economic demand through the design of new projects that will avoid oversizing while meeting population demand, combat leakages and losses, and reduce unaccountability for the WASH sector. The ratio of generated water and sanitation to water and sanitation paid for in water and sanitation supply systems is referred to as unaccountability. Such access and coverage of water supply and sanitation should enable each Nigerian to have sufficient access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation as a basic human right, ensuring that public health needs are met; allow water and sanitation to be managed in a way that ensures its sustainability as a resource for current and future generations of Nigerians; and allow the treatment of wastewater; Allow for the recognition of water as a scarce and vulnerable resource that is managed efficiently and with its economic value realized; the ownership of water to be vested in the Federal Government on behalf of the Nigerian people, with effective management of water and sanitation exhibiting clear accountability, as well as the management of water resources and sanitation at the lowest appropriate level; and the ownership of water to be vested in the Federal Government on behalf of the Nigerian people, with effective management of water and sanitation exhibiting clear accountability. Adequate sanitation must meet social, cultural, technological, user satisfaction, and environmental friendly requirements, implying that in Nigeria, adequate sanitation means access to safe excreta disposal facilities, household services, public facilities, and liquid and solid waste disposal without contaminating water supplies, posing health risks to residents, or degrading the environment. Every year, a variety of sources include different estimates for WASH. In 2000, the defunct3 Federal Ministry of Water Resources reported that only 48% of Nigerians living in urban and semi-urban areas and 39% of those living in rural areas had access to potable water. In spite of these low figures the average water delivery to the urban areas is only 32 litres per capita per day (litre per capita per day (lpcd) and that to rural areas is 10 lpcd. According to the NDHS (2003), There are no toilet facilities for 10.1 percent of the urban population, while 6.1 percent use pit latrines and 28.7% use flush toilets. Rural areas aren't as well-served as urban areas. According to the survey, 34.1 percent of rural households have no toilet facilities at all and must rely on bushes and rivers to relieve themselves. Open defecation is a natural occurrence all over the world. These unsanitary practices of excreta and waste treatment have far-reaching consequences for people's health and the environment. According to CBN (2006), the percentage of the population with access to safe drinking water increased from 30% in 1999 to 65% in 2005. According to the 2005 estimates, state capitals received 67 percent coverage, while urban areas received 60 percent, semi-urban areas received 50 percent, and rural areas received 55 percent. According to the FOS's MICS from 1999, only 52 percent of urban dwellers (48 percent if peri-urban areas are included) and 39 percent of rural dwellers have access to potable water. According to the Federal Ministry of Water Resources in 2000, about 71 percent of those living in rural areas do not have access to clean and sufficient sanitation. According to the FMAWR's 2006 Baseline Survey, national sanitation stands at 60.52 percent, with urban and rural sanitation at 67.56 percent and 65.62 percent, respectively. According to the EU WSSSRP, national sanitation coverage is 30% (35 percent for urban and 25% for rural) and water coverage is 47%. (65 percent urban and 30 percent for rural). According to the above data source, sanitation coverage has increased by 4% since 1990, when it was 26% (33 percent for urban and 22% for rural). In Nigeria, rates of institutional sanitation and water coverage are also poor. According to a UNICEF-sponsored report from 2003, there is only one toilet for every 500 students in schools, which is ten times the appropriate standard of 50. According to recent MDG monitoring estimates from the WHO/UNICEF JMP, 7.75 million toilets would need to be installed by 2015 to meet Nigeria's MDG sanitation goal of 70% coverage by 2015. This number means that over the next eight years, 775,000 household toilets would need to be installed (including 2008). In fact, however, more than this number of household latrines will be needed due to the eventual failure, breakdown, and abandonment of some low-cost latrines between 2008 and 2015 (Okay Sanni and Associates 2009). According to UN estimates, rural sanitation access rates have increased by just 3% in the last fifteen years, from 33% in 1990 to 36% in 2004, while urban sanitation access has increased by 5%, from 51% to 53%. (4) Although these access and development rates are comparable to those in Sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria's large population means that more people (72 million in 2004) live without sanitation than in any other African nation (WHO/UNICEF JMP 2006). December 2005, but the JMP estimates for 2008 are lower, with 47 percent (6 percent for urban and 30 percent for rural, compared to 50 percent (80 percent for urban and 34 percent for rural) in 1990. According to JMP info, Nigeria is the only country in the world with declining water access (urban by 2 percent and rural by 6 percent ). The Multi-Indicator Cluster Survey 3 (MICS3) (2007), on the other hand, estimated a 49.1% increase in drinking water coverage, with 75.7 percent in urban areas and 37.4 percent in rural areas. The three northern geopolitical zones had the lowest coverage (around 42%), while the south-east and south-south geopolitical zones had around 54 percent and the south-west had 71.1 percent. According to the JMP 2008, only about 30% of the population used improved sanitation, leaving 70% of the population without such facilities. Furthermore, a 2006 survey by WaterAid of 15 rural Local Government Areas (LGAs) paints a grim picture: only 25% of the rural population has access to safe drinking water, and only 5% has access to improved sanitation. Although the country's disparate water and sanitation statistics are appalling, none of the sources provide a positive image of the country. 1.1 Area of Study Nigeria is the most populated country in Africa, with a total land area of 923,768km2, an estimated population of 144.7 million people (2.7 percent population growth rate), and an illiteracy rate of 28% in 2008.