The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) and labour unions in the water sector have presented what they believe is a solution to the water crisis to the Lagos State government.
Akinbode Oluwafemi, ERA/FoEN Deputy Executive Director, proposed among others, a collective investment in water infrastructure and democratic decision-making that priorities the human right to water above profits is the way forward.
At the public presentation of the book –Lagos Water Crisis: Alternative Roadmap for Water Sector the group warned against a Public Private Patnerships (PPPs) initiative promoted by the Word bank through the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The groups revealed that the same PPP had failed in India, Philippines, Tanzania and Ghana.
Sani Baba, Public Services International Subrgional secretary for East and West Africa said that the document was the solution that the Lagos government was looking for, as it puts the human rights issues ad welfare of Lagos residents first.
The event which held at Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja was graced by a coalition of civil society, labour unions and grassroots mobilisers on the platform of Our Water Our Right Coalition which, has since 2014 petitioned the Lagos state government and mobilised residents to take to the streets to resist the PPP plans.
The groups insist that there is no solution outside privatization for the 21 million residents of Lagos, most of whom depend on unwholesome sources of water due to the corruption, lack of transparency and accountability and decay in infrastructure managed by the Lagos State Water Corporation (LSWC).
The document is a joint effort by the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, Corporate Accountability International, Public Services International (PSI), Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU) and Transnational Institute (TNI).
The document faults the current Lagos State Water Masterplan which it says will lead to violations of the human right to water and deny citizens universal access to safe drinking water. The book also pokes the Advisory Agreement between the state and the World Bank which were allegedly conducted in secret, without the active participation of citizens of Lagos and warned of likely unrest if water privatization is forced on the people.
Some recommendations put forward are Public-Public-Partnerships (PuPs) and the institution of a water trust. The reviewer, Dr. Chido Onuma said that to fulfil the human right to water, governments must ensure water is available, physically accessible, affordable, safe, and acceptable in odour, colour and other qualities.
He insisted that with the appropriate political will, the Akinwunmi Ambode administration could tap from suggestions in the book to transform the Lagos water system “from a source of disease, conflict and suffering into a model for all the world to emulate.”
