Nigerian Newsday

By Scholastica Hir, Makurdi

Benue State Governor, Mr. Gabriel Suswam, has assured that his administration would strengthen the local government system in the state to enable them effectively partner with development agencies in order to provide essential services at the grassroots.

Governor Suswam who gave the assurance while receiving the Program Officer of Water Aid in Benue State, Miss Mimi Ishan, regretted that at the moment most councils in the state have been weighed down with huge salary bills such that they can not pay counterpart funding due to lean finances.

The governor said a constitutional amendment was required to create a department of water and sanitation at the local government level as requested by the program officer, adding that the relevant units under the existing departments would be strengthened and empowered to effectively address water and sanitation issues.

He enjoined Water Aid to sustain its efforts in grassroots intervention in the area of water and sanitation as well as collaborate with the state ministry of water resources and environment to come out with designs of latrines to be built across the state by government.

Mr. Suswam, who said he was impressed with WaterAid’s data on the water situation in the state, requested that it be made available to him to enable him plan better for the water needs of the state in the years ahead.

He disclosed that the state government has awarded contract for the construction of the greater Makurdi water works and that the contractor was being mobilized to commence work, noting that the importance of water to human existence cannot be overemphasized.

Governor Suswam stated that all requests made by the organization which were pending on his table would be treated with dispatch.

Speaking earlier, the state program officer, Miss Ishan said the organization, in collaboration with the state government, has been providing services in the state for the past 11 years but regretted that local councils were yet to respond to the need to pay counterpart funding.

She called on the state government to live up to its earlier promise to build 500, 000  latrines across the state as a measure to ensure better sanitation in the state, saying everything must be done to justify the declaration of this year as the International Year of Sanitation.