By Samuel Luka
Stakeholders in Bauchi State’s water, sanitation and hygiene sector have identified fragmented data systems, vandalism of water infrastructure, and staffing shortages as key barriers to improved service delivery, during a three-day sector performance review workshop organized by the state government.
The workshop, supported by UNICEF, brought together government agencies, donors, civil society organizations and private partners to assess progress, gaps and bottlenecks in the state’s WASH sector against previous plans and investment roadmaps.
Speaking in an interview with Journalists on Wednesday, UNICEF WASH specialist, Stella Ifomo-Kafo-Tevi said while Bauchi State was making progress, the lack of harmonized data remained a major challenge.
“We have fragmentation of WASH data in bits and pieces, some in health, some in education, some in the Ministry of Women Affairs,” she said.
“Different donors also have different methods of data reporting and dashboards. But in Nigeria we have a nationally approved platform for data generation and reporting: WASHIMS, the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Information Management System.” She stated.
The WASH Specialist noted that harmonizing state data onto the WASHIMS platform was a priority outcome for the workshop, to ensure government and donors could track investments and results consistently.
“From the analysis, the investment that was made is high, but we wanted to see how it was tracked. We want a universal way of tracking it so that even the government can be proud of what it has spent, and donors can look back and say we have really supported the government,” Ifomo-Kafo-Tevi said.
Reviewing sanitation progress, Ifomo-Kafo-Tevi said Bauchi was on average in sanitation coverage and faced challenges with hygiene practices and sustaining open defecation-free status in communities that had achieved it.
The second day of the workshop focused on analyzing findings and answering “how, what, and who” questions, she said. Day three will be dedicated to developing concrete solutions to advance water, sanitation and hygiene across the state.
“My general call is that all hands should be on deck,” Ifomo-Kafo-Tevi said.
“This is not only about the government. Entrepreneurs, private partners, CSOs, community leaders, everyone has a role to play.
The state government needs to be on the driving seat to make sure that the performance of the WASH sector in Bauchi State is taken to an enviable stage.”
For Bauchi State Urban Water and Sewerage Corporation, pipeline vandalism and understaffing are immediate operational challenges.
Managing Director of the Corporation, Hajiya Uwani Garba Dagauda said theft and illegal connections on major pipelines had disrupted supply, but a new mobile court approved by the governor was helping to curb the problem.
“If any vandal is caught, the court will handle him. And also those that do illegal connections, when we get them, we take them to court and the court handles them,” she said.
“All this vandalization has been reduced to a minimum, and there is improvement in water supply too because of the backing we have from the governor.” Dagauda explained.
She said staffing gaps were also affecting billing and revenue collection, with the number of casual staff nearly matching permanent staff.
According to her, following meetings with the governor and Head of Service, the corporation has been directed to submit a memo detailing required staff numbers and cadres for approval.
“They said we cannot stop providing essential services, so staffing should not be the issue,” she said.
Stakeholders said they expect the workshop to produce a clear action plan to strengthen governance, data systems, and service delivery in the sector.
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