Water Supply Department

The Department is headed by a Director and has five divisions headed by Deputy Directors.

Functions of the Department:

    1. National Water Supply and Sanitation Policy, Strategies and Guidelines Formulation and Implementation in consultation with Water Quality and Sanitation Department as WASH;
    2. Co-ordination, Monitoring and Evaluation of the Water Supply sub-sector;
    3. Promotion of collaboration among all stakeholders;
    4. Implementation of Federal intervention on Water Supply; and
    5. Development and implementation of Water Supply Sector Reform.

Programmes and Projects of the Department

The Programmes and Projects prepared by the Department are based on a vision for national sector development and provide a proposed intervention strategy in the water supply and sanitation sector in 3 segments, namely; Urban Water Supply, Small Towns Water Supply and Rural Water Supply. Details of our programmes and projects are as follows:

  1. RURAL WATER SUPPLY PROGRAMME

The Federal Rural Water Supply Programme was embarked upon to address the challenges of providing accelerated access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation to the rural and small populations. The programme greatly contributed to the achievement made so far on the goals of NEEDS and the MDGs in water supply and sanitation. Furthermore, there are interventions in rural water supply by International Agencies and such as:

    • FGN-UNICEF/DFID Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Programme.
    • African Development Bank Assisted Rural Water Supply & Sanitation Initiative (RWSSI)
    • Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Assisted Rural Water Supply Project – for the guinea worm endemic communities of Oyo, Kano & Yobe States.
    • Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Assisted Rural Water Supply in five States, namely: Kebbi, Niger, Taraba, Enugu and Ondo.
    • Chinese-Assisted Rural Water Supply Programme
  1. SMALL TOWNS WATER SUPPLY & SANITATION PROGRAMME (STWSSP)

The Small Towns Water Supply and Sanitation Programme (STWSSP) is a comprehensive initiative of improving Water Supply and Sanitation in Nigeria’s over 4,000 small towns. It focuses on community ownership and management of water supply and sanitation facilities with community selection of technologies in a participatory manner. It also emphasizes community willingness and ability to pay for a percentage of construction cost as well as meeting the recurrent costs. The objective of the programme is to facilitate access to safe water and adequate sanitation to the over 60million residents of small towns in a demand-driven approach and to develop the best delivery mechanism for water supply and sanitation to be replicated later across the country. It also fits well into other poverty alleviation programmes. Pilot Project Execution:

    • World Bank Assisted Pilot Project in Ebonyi, Katsina and Niger.
    • European Commission (EC) Pilot Project in Adamawa, Delta and Ekiti.
  1. EU-Assisted Water Supply & Sanitation Sector Reform Programme (WSSSRP)

The EU-Assisted Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Reform Programme (WSSSRP) supports the FG and six States (Anambra, Cross River, Jigawa, Kano, Osun and Yobe) with a grant of Euro 87million to reform the water and sanitation sector. Its objective is to increase access to safe, adequate and sustainable water and sanitation services in six EC focal states. The programme is to contribute to poverty eradication, sustainable development, and to achieving the MDGs by facilitating increased access to safe, adequate and sustainable water and sanitation services in the six EC focal states.

  1. URBAN WATER SUPPLY PROGRAMME

Federal Government intervention in the urban water supply was targeted at providing sustainable water supply to over 35 million people in urban settlements through various urban water supply projects. However, most of the projects are at various stages of completions due to lack of sufficient budgetary provisions. Funds have now been provided in 2016 & 2017 Appropriation Acts to complete some of the hitherto stalled projects. The programme is supported by some development partners in the list below:

     (a) World Bank-assisted National Urban Water Sector Reform Project:

The World Bank is supporting urban water supply programme with a credit of US$400million in five States comprising Kaduna, Ogun, Enugu, Lagos & Cross River. The 1st Phase of the project implementation commenced in December 2004 in Ogun and Kaduna. The 2nd Phase soon followed in November 2005 with Lagos and Cross River while Enugu was added in July 2006. It is intended that the programme will be scaled up to cover all the States of the Federation and the FCT as funds become available. The Project’s principal development objectives are to: (i) increase access to piped water networks in the capitals and other 16 major towns of the five States and; (ii) improve reliability and financial viability of the State Water Agencies. The project is also assisting in establishing the enabling environment for progressive private sector involvement in the sector.

   (b) UNHABITAT-Supported Water for African Cities:

The UN-Habitat is supporting provision of water supply in two (2) communities of Gwarandok and Longwa within Jos metropolis of Plateau State. The objective of the project is to address the water crisis in African cities and to contribute to the attainment of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by improving access to adequate sanitation and safe drinking water by the urban poor

  1. COORDINATION OF THE WATER SUPPLY & SANITATION SECTOR:

Sector Coordination and Partnership is one of the eight (8) goals of the MDG and is very important for sustainable service provision in water supply and sanitation. Since Water Supply and Sanitation touches all the eight (8) MDG goals, the strongest tool for sustaining improvement in the sector is by building partnership both locally and internationally. This is the process of creating forums of interaction amongst all persons, organizations, bodies and interest groups for the purpose of harmonization, reduction in duplication and conflicts, creation of enabling environment for sustained improvement in water supply and sanitation sector.

  1. PARTNERSHIP FOR EXPANDED WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION (PEWASH)