EXECUTIVE Secretary of Lagos State Water Regulatory Commission (LASWARCO) Mrs Funke Adepoju has said the study tour to the National Water and Sanitation Council (NWASCO) in Zambia will boost LASWARCO’s capacity in improving service delivery in the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) sector.
She said the tour would pave the way for significant and sustainable engagement in water supply and wastewater management while protecting the interests of consumers.
The study tour was in collaboration with WaterAid Nigeria, under the leadership of its Country Director, Evelyn Mere.
Adepoju, in a statement by LASWARCO’s spokesperson, Otaru Adegoke, said: “The visit to Zambia is essentially to study the basic factors responsible for the rapid progress achieved in regulating the WASH sector, especially how the country responded to its WASH crisis and the steps taken to turn around their water supply and sanitation crisis, including the models applied, sources of funding, challenges faced and lessons learnt.
“The visit also afforded us the opportunity to have a clear understanding of the policy statements in terms of content and context that generated a rapid positive response to reforming the WASH sector, as well as the processes and procedure that informed the positive response of both government officials and the citizenry to the reform.
‘’We also shared notes on how private sector engagement and intervention of non-state actors is operating in the WASH sector.”
Permanent Secretary in the Office of Drainage and Water Resources at the Ministry of Environment Lekan Shodeinde stressed the need for regulation towards ensuring that operators were kept on their toes to provide the best services for consumers.