The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is to spend about $44.9m to improve the delivery of water and sanitation services in Lagos State, Nigeria. The project termed: Lagos Urban Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (LUWASH), will run for five years, from January 3, 2023 to January, 2028.
Through an integrated, market-based approach, LUWASH will work across the value chain of WASH services to bolster supply and manage demand within a strengthened framework of sector governance, financing, and regulated services. The activity aims to catalyze sector transformation and generate WASH service improvements for at least 4 million people in low-income communities and build a foundation for continued progress beyond LUWASH.
Announcing the commencement of the LUWASH, the Contracting Officer’s Representative in the Office of Economic Growth and Environment (EGE), USAID Nigeria, DrJoachim Ezeiji, said the objective of the award is to provide expert technical services to Lagos State Government to expand the provision and governance of water, sanitation and hygiene service in Lagos State, Nigeria.
The USAID financing is expected to “support Infrastructure rehabilitation, capacity building, institutional strengthening, improvement of governance, among others”, said Dr Ezeiji.
LUWASH is expected to support the Lagos Water Corporation (LWC) and Lagos State Water Regulatory Commission (LASWARCO) with targeted technical assistance.
A post award orientation was held on Thursday January 19, 2023, during which details of LUWASH was unfolded. LUWASH in brief
LUWASH is implemented by a Consortium led by Chemonics International, and comprising Sheladia Associates, Inc.
USAID, and the Lagos State Government, had earlier on December 8, 2021, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to improve access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services in the state.
LUWASH’s theory of Change is based on the following assumptions:
If USAID’s interventions help strengthen governance and institutional arrangements to deliver WASH services; improve public and private service providers performance; increase access to sustainable water services; increase household access to safe sanitation and improve the quality of source water; Then availability and sustainable management of safe and climate resilient water and sanitation services in Lagos will increase.
Soni Elisha, LUWASH’s Deputy Chief of Party, posted on his LinkedIn handle that the water and sanitation project:
‘Focuses on expanding and improving urban water and sanitation service delivery to the unserved and underserved households residing in Lagos. We are working on the premise that better performing service providers will raise the quality of services for their customers; facilitate services-driven economic performance; improve state finances by increasing cost recovery; and increase the sector’s capacity to sustainably serve all customers. To this end, the Regulatory Commission, Waste Water Management Office, the Water Corporation, private sector players and other non state actors in the WASH sector will have a look in!’
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