Oyo Assembly has granted the request of Governor Seyi Makinde to access N800 million loan facility for Oyo State Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASSA) to be paid as counterpart fund to attract the sum of N2.97 billion from the Federal Ministry of Water Resources.
Speaker Adebo Ogundoyin gave the approval during plenary on Thursday following the request forwarded to the lawmakers earlier by the Governor.
According to the request, the fund is required to provide for the implementation of Partnership for Expanded Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (PEWASH) in twenty local government areas in the state.
The Governor had said: “The project is aimed at improving water supply, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) situation in the urban, small towns, and rural areas in the state.”
The twenty LGAs that will benefit from the project are Ibadan South East, Ibadan South West, Ogbomoso, Atisbo, Afijio and Akinyele.
Others are: Atiba, Iwajowa, Iseyin, Irepo, Ibarapa North, Ibarapa East, Ibadan North East, Kajola, Oyo East, Orelope, Ona Ara, Oluyole, Saki West and Saki East.
The Speaker, while reading the request, stressed the importance of good portable water supply to the people adding that most communities in the state lack water to drink and use for other purposes.
He said, if the project is well implemented, residents of the state will be saved from water borne diseases as clean water will be available.
Other lawmakers including Sanjo Adedoyin (Ogbomoso South); Kehinde Olatunde (Akinyele II); Gabriel Babatunde (Ibadan North II) and Saminu Gbadamosi (Atisbo/Saki East) agreed that the expanded water supply, sanitation and hygiene initiative will meet the yearnings of the people in terms of adequate water supply and will help in further making lives bearable for the people as water is life.
But, some other lawmakers including Asimiyu Alarape (Atiba); Seyi Adisa (Afijio); Isiaka Tunde(Oyo East/West) and Olawumi Oladeji (Ogbomoso North) stressed the need for the fund to be monitored so as to be used for what it is meant for.
