By Treasure Anieth
The Lift Above Poverty Organisation (LAPO) has called for urgent and sustained action to ensure that every Nigerian child has access to safe water, functional sanitation facilities and proper hygiene services in schools.
The call was made at the 33rd Annual Development Forum of LAPO held at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, on Thursday, with the theme, “Safe Water, Healthy Learning: Advancing WASH in Nigerian Schools.”
The forum brought together government officials, policymakers, development partners, education stakeholders, civil society organisations, members of the diplomatic community, traditional and religious leaders and the media to examine the challenges confronting water, sanitation and hygiene services in Nigerian schools.
In his welcome address, the President of LAPO said the annual forum, established in 1994, had remained an important platform for discussing critical national development issues and developing practical responses to challenges affecting Nigerians.
He said the choice of the theme reflected LAPO’s commitment to improving the lives of Nigerians, particularly children who continue to face difficulties accessing basic facilities needed for a safe and conducive learning environment.
According to him, the 2021 Water, Sanitation and Hygiene National Outcome Routine Mapping report showed that only 37 per cent of schools in Nigeria had access to basic water services, while 35 per cent had basic sanitation services and 30 per cent had basic hygiene services.
He added that only about 15 per cent of schools had budgeted funds for the maintenance of their WASH facilities.
The LAPO president said the figures represented the daily realities of millions of Nigerian children who attend schools without reliable access to clean water, decent toilets and handwashing facilities.
He stressed that inadequate WASH services could expose children to preventable diseases, disrupt school attendance and undermine their ability to learn effectively.
Also speaking at the forum, former Minister of Aviation and Chancellor of the Athena Centre for Policy and Leadership, Chief Osita Chidoka, represented by retired Deputy Corps Marshal Victor Nwokolo, called for a change in the way government measures the success of public infrastructure projects.
Chidoka argued that the government should move beyond counting the number of boreholes, toilets and other facilities constructed and instead focus on whether such facilities remain functional and accessible to the people they were designed to serve.
He said a facility could be recorded as completed in government documents while remaining unusable by pupils because of poor maintenance.
According to him, the real test of public investment should be whether a child can turn on a tap and get water, use a clean toilet and access appropriate hygiene facilities when needed.
He advocated the assignment of clear responsibility for school WASH services, dedicated funding for maintenance and publicly accessible records showing whether facilities in individual schools were operational.
Chidoka said every public school should have a named institution responsible for its water and sanitation services, a funded maintenance arrangement and a public record that would enable parents and communities to monitor the condition of the facilities.
He also urged development partners to ensure that plans for maintaining facilities were established before construction projects were completed or funding arrangements ended.
The Chairperson of the forum and Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hon. Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, was represented at the event, which also featured a keynote presentation by Zainab Ibrahim Budah, Senior Learning and Development Specialist in the Sports and Health Education Division of the Federal Ministry of Education.
In her opening remarks, the LAPO Chairperson said quality education could not be achieved where children’s basic needs remained unmet.
She called on government and policymakers to prioritise investment in school WASH facilities and ensure that policies were supported by adequate funding, effective implementation and accountability.
She also urged school proprietors, administrators and teachers to treat WASH as an essential part of quality education, while encouraging development partners and the private sector to invest in sustainable solutions for underserved schools and communities.
The forum further called for greater participation by parents, traditional rulers, religious leaders and communities in monitoring school WASH facilities and promoting good hygiene practices among children.
Students were also encouraged to take responsibility for maintaining clean school environments and promoting healthy hygiene habits among their peers.
In its communiqué, the forum identified inadequate access to safe drinking water, poor maintenance of existing infrastructure, weak institutional accountability and inadequate budgetary provisions as some of the major challenges affecting school WASH services in Nigeria.
It noted that the 2023 national WASH mapping survey indicated that nearly 29 million Nigerian children did not have access to drinking water in their schools.
The forum observed that the problem extended beyond the construction of facilities, stressing that boreholes, toilets and other WASH infrastructure often became unusable because of inadequate maintenance, insufficient operational funding and unclear responsibility for repairs.
It also highlighted the impact of poor WASH services on children’s health, dignity and learning, particularly among adolescent girls and children living with disabilities.
The forum recommended that every public school should have a clearly designated institution responsible for its water, sanitation and hygiene services, with defined obligations and timelines for addressing faults.
It called for dedicated maintenance plans and recurrent funding for WASH projects, as well as regular inspections and performance reviews to ensure that facilities remain functional.
The participants further recommended the creation of publicly accessible records showing the operational status of school WASH facilities and the institutions responsible for maintaining them.
They urged government and development partners to prioritise functionality rather than simply measuring success by the number of infrastructure projects completed.
The forum also called for gender-sensitive and disability-inclusive WASH facilities, including adequate privacy and menstrual hygiene support for girls and accessible facilities for children with disabilities.
It recommended stronger coordination among federal, state and local governments, education authorities, water and sanitation agencies, school administrators and development partners to eliminate gaps in responsibility and improve service delivery.
The forum stressed that WASH should be integrated into education planning and infrastructure development, noting that access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene was essential to improving school enrolment, attendance, retention and learning outcomes.
It further recommended that the success of WASH interventions should ultimately be assessed based on students’ experiences and their ability to consistently access safe, functional and appropriate facilities.
The participants commended LAPO for sustaining the Annual Development Forum for more than three decades and urged stakeholders to translate the recommendations into concrete actions.
They emphasised that the true measure of progress would not be the number of facilities constructed, but whether Nigerian children could consistently use safe, functional and dignified WASH facilities in their schools.
