The Borno government and the World Bank have trained 270 stakeholders from the 27 state’s local government areas on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH).

The training was conducted under the Multi-Sectoral Crisis Recovery Project (MCRP) to strengthen over 1,000 community WASH committees in rural areas of the state.

Speaking at the end of the five-day training programme in Maiduguri on Saturday, the Borno coordinator of MCRP, Baba-Zanna Abdulkareem, raised concern over the prevalence of diseases associated with WASH in rural and populated slums of urban areas.

Mr Abdulkareem, represented by the monitoring and evaluation officer of the project, Bako Shuaibu, said statistics had shown that 70 per cent of water facilities failed in their first year of operation due to the lack of a proper concept of community ownership and sustainability plan.

He said the training would strengthen the capacity of all the stakeholders in the water and hygiene sectors with the principles of good water and waste management.

In his remarks, the training consultant, Suleiman Dauda, said the training aligned with the overall development objectives of the Borno government to ensure that its investments in the sector yielded results.

Mr Dauda commended Governor Babagana Zulum’s administration for being proactive in service delivery by investing in people-oriented projects and working towards the sustainability of the projects.

One of the workshop’s facilitators, Abubakar Musa, urged the trainees to use the knowledge acquired to promote sanitation and personal and environmental hygiene sustainability.

(NAN)