- Report Shows Lagos Vigorous Handwashing Campaign And Water Scarcity Are Two Opposing Ends
- Corroborates The New Diplomat’s Investigation On Lagos Water
The Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has released a new report that revealed that the Lagos state government’s public campaign on regular handwashing to stop Covid-19 spread is at variance with the reality on ground across Lagos metropolis, suburbs and rural communities as the situation of its waterworks has gone from bad to worse while the pandemic rages on.
The report by CAPPA following its three-month investigation on the status of the waterworks in Lagos shows that the continuous drop in water production capacity across the state has made regular handwashing almost impracticable for many residents, hence having a deleterious effect on the state’s response to curb the spread of the contagion.
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This comes as Lagos, the epicentre of the Coronavirus pandemic in Nigeria continues to see surge in its Covid-19 caseload as its number of confirmed cases hit 12,711 Tuesday.
The New Diplomat reports before the pandemic struck the state on the 27th of February, the state’s public water infrastructures have been in shambles, making access to portable water difficult for residents to fight the virus and that’s just the basic provision to start with.
Read also: Lagos State Govt. Seals Hotel, Night Club Over COVID 19 Violation
Following decades of neglect by successive administrations and alleged funds mismanagement at the Lagos Water Corporation, public taps continue to run dry in Africa’s most populous city. The New Diplomat investigations had revealed the decadence in the Lagos water sector in multiple reports.
Titled: ‘How Acute Water Shortage May Jeopardize COVID-19 Response in Lagos’, the report is the culmination of fact-finding activities by CAPPA team which include visits to 13 waterworks spread across 11 local government areas of the state, and interviews with local residents.
According to CAPPA, its 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, but CAPPA’s report revealed that any expectation of getting that much water from the waterworks would be an illusion as things stand. While some waterworks are currently under lock and key, operational failures had crippled supply in many of the waterworks visited by the CAPPA’s team.
CAPPA Executive Director, Mr. 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.”
He noted that over a year after his assumption of office, “Governor Babajide Sanwo-olu has not given any blueprint on how the government will make portable water accessible to all,” but had instead embarked on the privatisation of water infrastructures in the state, something ‘Our Water, Our Right’ campaigners have continued to vociferously kick against.
Oluwafemi said when the Lagos state government “ordered a lockdown, marched with state-sponsored public health messages broadcast on radio television, asking residents to stay at home and maintain a high sense of regular washing of hands with water and soap,” the only thing it failed to add to its long campaign list was residents’ free access to public water supply.
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,” Oluwafemi said.
According to the report, some of the reasons why the waterworks were performing abysmally include faulty engines, irregular power supply and lack of manpower among others.
For instance, Shasha waterworks in Alimosho – the most populated local government in Lagos — had not functioned for upwards of seven years. Infrastructure at the Badagry waterworks have started crumbling and the premises taken over by weeds. Only at the Lekki waterworks which services highbrow customers did the team learn that production was more regular especially when there is power.
In Badagry, the water facility was overgrown with weeds while the buildings were crumbling due to years of neglect. 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, the report revealed.
Bemoaning residents’ lack of access to portable water to combat the malaise during the unveiling of the report, Chairperson, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Lagos State Council, Comrade Sessi Funmi said: “I dont know how a city like Lagos got itself into this mess despite all the money it has. All the money appropriated for water supply in yearly budgets, where have they gone?
“The sector is almost getting to a point of collapse and if we don’t have water how do we tackle this Coronavirus?” She asked.
“We appeal to the conscience of leaders that they should not take the people for fools all the times,” the NLC leader said. “Government should plug back taxpayers money into social services.”
According to Funmi, it was a contradiction of some sorts that a country that is a party to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change has failed to provide portable water — which forms UN’s SDGs Goal 6 — to citizens. She added that the situation has not only impacted negatively on the Nigeria’s Covid-19 response so far, but it has continued to have dire consequences on the sanctity of the Nigerian environment.
Deputy Director, Joint Action Front, (JAF), Mr. Chike Achude posits that it’s disturbing Nigerians have seen the challenge of acute water supply as normal. He said it explains why citizens have not been robustly engaging government on the menace of water scarcity in the country like they do on the lack of other public amenities.
“We’ve gotten to a stage where Nigerians are beginning to see the lack of water supply as normal and that’s why it’s good that CAPPA has continued to sustain its campaign on water.
“The government told us the importance of handwashing, but it’s unfortunate that the same government didn’t expect citizens to ask how they would have access to portable water. Water has never been a priority to them. Yet you cannot run many sectors of the economy inluding health and education without water,” Chude added.
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.
Other recommendations are: “Institution of a probe into 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.
“Lagos State government should reject all forms of water privatisation and commodification.
“Lagos State government fully uphold the human right to water as an obligation of the government, representing the people
“Lagos state government should build the political will to prioritize water for citizens, leading to a comprehensive plan that invests in water infrastructure necessary to provide universal access, jobs, improved public health, and invigoration of the Lagos economy.”
