The Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has called on the Lagos State government to immediately declare a state of emergency in the water sector.
The non-governmental organisation while releasing a three-month investigation report which its compiled on the status of the waterworks in Lagos State, gave a dire verdict, saying the situation was grave.
According to it, it embarked on its investigation in response to the state government’s public service campaign asking residents to wash their hands regularly to curb the spread of the COVID-19.
In its report titled: How Acute Water Shortage May Jeopardize COVID-19 Response in Lagos, CAPPA said the state failed to make provision for adequate supply of water to residents, yet it was asking them to ensure that they washed their hands regularly.
According to the World Health organisation (WHO), regular washing of hands, sanitation and the use of sanitisers are the most basic and safe way to keep coronavirus away from people.
However, water is one of the most challenging basic amenity that is made available in Lagos, the country’s major commercial hub.
Speaking at the presentation of the report, CAPPA Executive Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi said: “When the Lagos State Government commenced its public service announcement on the need for citizens to regularly wash their hands with clean water, it was necessary to complement their efforts by ascertaining the true state of infrastructure that would deliver on that mandate. Unfortunately, the findings were very disturbing.
“Not only did we discover that many of the waterworks were performing abysmally below capacity, at the time of the most crucial need for residents, most were practically on lock down.”
He said the Lagos State government has refused to make the commodity available to the people. The report is the culmination of fact-finding activities by CAPPA team which included visits to 13 waterworks spread across 11 local government areas of the state, and interviews with local residents.
The CAPPA team visited Adiyan, Akilo-Ogba, Badagry, Bariga, Epe, Ifako-Ijaiye, Iju, Isashi and Lekki waterworks. Others are Otta-Ikosi, Shomolu, Surulere and communities around the headquarters of the Lagos Water Corporation (LWC) in Ijora. Combined, the waterworks visited are supposed to provide Lagos residents about 137.6 million gallons of water per day. However, none of them provide anything near that.
Also speaking at the event, the chairperson of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Lagos chapter, Comrade Funmi Sessi, decried the neglect of the water sector by the state government at this critical time. According to her, if Lagos as the epi-centre of the Covid-19 can’t provide water for its residents despite its population and wealth, how could other les endowed state be able to satisfy this basic need?
She agreed with the CAPPA report that acute shortage of water was enough to jeopardise the fight against Covid-19.
In his contribution, Achike Chude of the Joint Action Front called on civil society groups to join hands with CAPPA to make the issue of provision of water as important in date to date discussions as provision of power.
He scored the Lagos State government low in the area of provision of water for its millions of residents. He faulted the state’s preparedness in the area of provision of what, which he said was the most essential aspect of the fight against the pandemic.
Chude averred that sanitation and water go together and the state needs to buckle up to tackle this if the fight against the virus is going to succeed. He lauds CAPPA’s effort in reminding the government of its responsibilities to the citizens.
The report revealed that in Badagry, the water facility was overgrown with weeds while the buildings were crumbling due to years of neglect, while residents living near the Lagos Water Corporation (LWC) headquarters in Ijora complained about not having water at a time the corporation was busy announcing improved services.
CAPPA recommended that the Lagos State government should jettison its planned privatisation of the water sector and declare a state of emergency in the sector. It also urged the state government to integrate broad public participation in developing plans to achieve universal access.
It called for a probe of the N1.6 billion released for rehabilitation of the 48 mini and micro waterworks under the Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode administration and all water contracts in the state since 1999, and that the state should reject all forms of water privatisation and commodification.
CAPPA asked the state government to uphold issue of water as a human right and as an obligation of the government to the people
