THE Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has expressed worry over the water scarcity in Lagos communities and cautioned that if the situation is not speedily addressed residents might become susceptible to water borne diseases and hamper efforts at combating the spread of the COVID 19 pandemic.
CAPPA raised the alarm following a radio interview by the Lagos Water Corporation (LWC) Group Managing Director, Badmus Muminu on Traffic FM 96.1 where he blamed water shortage in Lagos on customers allegedly breaking water pipes. The interview was aired to coincide with the second anniversary of the Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration.
In the last three months, Lagos residents have been lamenting the water shortages and abysmal performance of the waterworks in the state. CAPPA noted that in April and May, the two major water works in Lagos-Adiyan and Iju did not produce up to 10 per cent of their installed capacity.
According to CAPPA, its investigations revealed that power outage in the Adiyan waterworks was caused by fault on a feeder line and the plant is now limited to one raw water pump. At Iju, the silt and sludge treatment plant requires maintenance which has not been carried out.
In a statement issued in Lagos, CAPPA Executive Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi said: “It is disheartening and very disturbing that rather than lay the blame of the acute water shortage in Lagos on mis-prioritisation by the Lagos government, the helmsman of the Lagos Water Corporation who should know better blames it on the victims. It is double jeopardy.”
Oluwafemi pointed out that the state government is yet to acknowledge and act on two reports that CAPPA presented to it. The reports are ‘How Acute Water Shortage May Jeopardize the Fight Against COVID-19’ published in 2020 and ‘Nearly One Year After, Water Shortages Still Persist in Lagos’ published in March 2021.
“Both reports showed the deplorable state of all the waterworks in the state that have been overtaken with weeds and turned to ad-hoc car parking spaces.”
On the way forward, Oluwafemi said that it is time for the government to shift its gaze from the much-discredited Public Private Partnership (PPP) and other privatisation arrangements proposed by the World Bank and other International financial institutions in addressing the Lagos water crisis.
“Two years into Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s administration we urge him to present a blueprint on how he is going to resolve the state’s water crisis. Instead of shirking its responsibility, the Lagos government should consult and involve citizens in ensuring that public water works in Lagos. Further delay will only set a chain of negative impacts that no one desires.”
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