By Suzan Edeh, Bauchi
The Bauchi State government has set up a seven-man committee to work out modalities for the establishment of WASH regulatory commission for the effective coordination and implementation of policies dwelling on water, sanitation and hygiene services.
This followed a two-day stakeholders workshop organized by WaterAid with funding from DP’ WORLD for high level government officials from line ministries, departments and agencies as well as civil society organisations.
The committee which will be chaired by the General-Manager of the State Rural Water, Sanitation and Hygiene agency RUWASA, Alhaji Habib Mohammed Sadiq will among other mandates, undertake immediate registration and licensing of all service providers in the WASH sector including registered borehole drillers, pure water vendors, manual pit emptiers as well as water tankers association members.
The committee is also expected to review the terms of reference for the establishment of the committee by putting in place self-regulatory mechanism for sustainable and efficient water supply in Bauchi state in order to guarantee the safety of both service providers and consumers as well as to ensure appropriate pricing for various class of water users.
Addressing the high level stakeholders meeting the consultant and WaterAid task team lead for Lagos state, Mr Adebayo Alao said the problem of the WASH sector was largely not lack of funds but absence of data and effective plan that would guarantee affordable, reliable and quality water supply to consumers in Bauchi State.
He reminded the committee of the importance of regulation which must include fairness and equity to ensure that no citizen was denied access to adequate WASH services adding that the committee must comply strictly with tariff setting that would protect the rights of everybody.
Mr Adebayo Alao advised Bauchi State government to provide the enabling environment for the WASH sector to strive by ensuring access to loan facilities for operators saying, by so doing, operators will not engage in profiteering or compromise standards in the cause of their services to consumers.
In his remark at the occasion, the permanent secretary in the office of the head of civil service, Alhaji Dawud Mahmood Yakubu urged the committee to work closely with the line MDAs with a view to gathering reliable information that would facilitate the establishment of the regulatory commission by this time next year.