HipCity Innovation Centre, an Abuja-based NGO, has partnered with the FCT Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASSA) to assist the agency in delivery its mandate.
The mandate establishing the agency is to ensure that proper water supply, good sanitation and proper hygiene are made available to the inhabitant of the city.
Speaking during a visit on Friday to RUWASSA office in Abuja, Mr Bassey Bassey, the Executive Director of the centre, who led the team for the visit stated that they were in the office to strengthen it capacity in the area of its mandate.
He commended the agency for its tireless efforts in delivering on its mandate and stated that over the years, the NGO had enjoyed an amicable relationship with RUWASSA.
Bassey said that the relationship between the two organisations had continued to boost to the extent that visiting the agency was now a regular thing on the part of HipCity.
He pledged his organisation’s commitment to ensure that the 17 chiefdoms in the FCT enjoys Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services and work towards making Open Defecation (ODF) a thing of the past.
Bassey said that one of the NGO’s focal point was strengthening communities’ capacity in the demand for quality service; identification of critical stakeholders responsible for service delivery within and outside government agencies.
Others are engaging stakeholders with appropriate mediums through which they could present their challenges to bring about desired results.
Bassey mentioned some of the communities that the NGO had worked with in the past and recounted how the organisation’s efforts have entrenched behavioural change towards sanitation and hygiene.
He also drew the attention of RUWASSA to some of the communities in the FCT that are in dire need of WASH services.
He stated that part of the purpose of the visit was to solicit the collaboration of the agency in addressing WASH needs of communities across the 17 chiefdoms of the FCT.
He added that the visit would consolidate on the already established relationships between both organisation and would translate to delivery of WASH services to the people and improve citizen-government engagement.
Responding, the Executive Director of FCT-RUWASSA, Dr Mohammed Dan-Hassan, commended the NGO for the role it had played in the past, and the one it’s was about to play to complement the mandate of the agency.
Dan-Hassan noted that HipCity had become the bridge between the government and the people through establishing relationships with communities and triggering them towards improving their WASH practices.
He added that the NGO had also played crucial role in alerting the government of communities that require intervention.
Dan-Hassan appreciated HipCity for participating in the inauguration and implementation of FCT-RUWASSA’s Clean Nigeria Programme, and the 2022 World Water Day celebration.
He reiterated the agency’s commitment to work with HipCity Innovation Centre to improve WASH services in FCT communities.
Dan-Hassan said that improving WASH practices and other service delivery was critical in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as there was an interconnectedness of WASH impacts across all aspects of the SDGS.
He requested that HipCity Innovation Centre develop a strategic action plan to guide the collaboration with the FCT-RUWASSA.
“This plan should amongst other things, include what communities the NGO has identified as not having access to WASH services.
“The details of the plan will then be discussed by the two parties at a later date, with a view to incorporating it into the FCT RUWASSA’s 2022-year plan,” he said.
Other management staff of FCT-RUWASSA shared their experiences and lessons working in communities and charged the organisation to sensitise communities on the ills of open defecation.
They also asked the NGO to galvanise individuals and local investors to invest in sanitation businesses as all of these concerted efforts would speed up Nigeria’s and FCT drive towards becoming open defecation free on or before 2025.