US Embassy donates sanitation facility to Abuja area council
the edifice was part of efforts towards impacting communities
Ambassador Mary Beth Leonard
The United States Diplomatic Mission to Nigeria Thursday donated N6m sanitation facility to Kwali Area Council in a bid to end open defecation in the community.
The facility was built from funds by the US Embassy’s small grant and counterpart funding from Foundation for Community Health, Rights and Development (FOCHRID).
The US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leonard, said the edifice was part of efforts towards impacting communities in Nigeria by giving poor families access to clean water and sanitation.
Leonard disclosed that the embassy had signed a $10 million grant with the UNICEF to support government initiative through water and Sanitation Hygiene (WASH) for 300,000 households in Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara States.
“USAID’s assistance will help to build community-centered approaches to deliver, operate and manage sustainable WASH services in rural areas to strengthen community health and economic stability and help rebuild needed infrastructure and support community efforts to increase access to proper sanitation, adopt proper hygiene behaviors and improve water supply,” she said.
On the suspension of twitter, she said it was undermining the freedom and human rights of Nigeria.
She, however, noted that the US did not believe that any government should sit idle when people were engaging in online speech.
“Where we differ is that the response to that is not banning social media, which plays many important roles in the commercial sphere.”
She urged governments to prosecute those peddling hate speech on social media through existing laws and work with technological companies to address it.
Executive Director, FOCHRID, Taiwo Benson, said the edifice would help the community to tackle open defecation with users to pay a token of N10 to access it.