By Omotayo Edubi
The Kaduna State Government has assigned N4.7 billion for water, sanitation, and hygiene services in its 2022 budget.
The State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai signed this in the 2022 budget of N278.6 billion, on Dec. 22.
The document read that a sum of N4.7 billion was earmarked to the state’s Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency, representing 1.7 per cent of the total budget.
N4.6 billion was allocated for capital expenditure, while N16.7 million was for recurrent expenditure.
The budget showed that N1.5 billion was allocated as a matching funding for the Partnership for Expanded Water Supply, Hygiene, and Sanitation project.
It further showed that N406.1 million was allocated for the implementation of the state Roadmap for Eliminating Open Defecation in 20 Local Government Areas (LGAs).
Similarly, N58.3 million was earmarked for the conduct of hygiene promotion and mobilisation and N4.9 million for the management of 207 Community-Led Total Sanitation facilitators across the 23 LGAs of the state.
Also, N471.1 million was earmarked for the construction of 100 blocks of gender-sensitive sanitation facilities in institutions and public places, while N258.1 million was for the rehabilitation of 2,633 hand pump boreholes.
The government equally allocated N882.7 million for the implementation of Sustainable Urban-Rural Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene across the state and N575.7 million for the construction and installation of 230 hand pump boreholes.
A total of N214.5 million was earmarked for the procurement of three state-of-the-art drilling rigs and accessories, and N16.8 million for emergency response to disaster in Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH).
The document further showed that N78.5 million was allocated for refurbishing and maintenance of two drilling rigs and components, as well as the purchase of workshop materials.
A total of N3.4 million was earmarked for the procurement process for the drilling and construction of water and sanitation facilities.
The institutionalisation of the Village Level Operation and Maintenance concept in 476 communities for the sustainability of WASH facilities got N72.9 million.
Also, a total of N94.2 million was allocated for tracking, monitoring, contract management, media and publicity, supervision, and other logistics to all project sites.
Similarly, a total of N51.7 million was allocated to the state Water Service Regulatory Commission, of which N17 million was for capital expenditure and N34.6 million for recurrent.
Of the N17 million earmarked for capital expenditure, N11.7 million was for the development and production of regulations, standards, and guidelines, while N5.4 million was for the procurement of mini water quality laboratory equipment and reagents.