By Dafe Favour
A coalition of water justice groups that met with members of the Lagos State House of Assembly on Tuesday, September 9, 2025 in Lagos following their earlier petition to the House, have restated their opposition to plans by the Lagos Water Corporation (LWC) to embark on a pilot Public Private Partnership (PPP) in the state’s water sector.
The meeting followed an invitation to the groups on September 1, 2025 in which the House of Assembly had acknowledged the joint petition by the six organizations on August 18, 2025 and invited them for a meeting with the House Committee on Environment (Parastatals).
The groups at the meeting which held at the Assembly Complex, Alausa Ikeja, were the Renevlyn Development Initiative (RDI), Citizens Free Service Forum (CFSF), Environmental Defenders Network (EDEN), Ecumenical Water Network Africa/Blue Communities Africa (EWNA/BCA), Child Health Organization (CHO) and the New Life Community Care Initiative (NELCCI), represented by their chief executives.
At the meeting, presided over by the Committee Chairman, Environmental Parastatal, Hon. Shabi Rassheed Adekola, who represents Lagos Mainland II Constituency, representative of Shomolu II, Hon. Samuel Olu Apata and his Ojo I counterpart, Hon. Ege Oluwasegun Adebisi, the groups queried the decision of the LWC to press ahead with the privatization agenda even when majority of Lagosians support public sector solutions to the state’s water crisis.
The groups called for the probe of N4 billion for the Otta-Ikosi waterworks awarded in 2007 but is still not working; N3 billion expended on construction of an Independent Power Plant (IPP) which also included an additional N180 million expended monthly on purchase of fuel; N897m released by the Lagos State government for rehabilitation of Iju and Adiyan Waterworks and N789 million released by the Lagos State Government for rehabilitation of the 48 mini and micro waterworks in Lagos.
Others are N2.7 billion voted by the Lagos State Government and expended on the rehabilitation of Ishasi Waterworks supervised by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, N950 million budgeted for purchase of chemical for year 2023; N315 million paid as 50 percent advance payment to contractors for the supply of liquid alum in October 2023; N1.2 billion budget for water treatment chemicals in 2024 and N9.5 million for repair of chemical store gate at Iju and Adiyan waterworks.
During the meeting also attended by management of the LWC, the groups demanded an investigation of how the funds, their recovery and use in the rehabilitation of the waterworks. Additionally, they urged the Lagos State Government to learn from the failure of PPPs in the United Kingdom and other countries globally that had experimented with the scheme on the prodding of the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
While commending the Lagos House of Assembly for the invitation they urged the House to convene a public hearing to hear from Lagos residents and adopt a truly pro-people solution to the Lagos water crisis, which rests in the realm of democratic public control of water and transparent management of the finances meant for water provision.
In his response Hon. Adekola commended the petitioners and promised that the House would commence investigation on the allegations of misappropriation of funds that were meant for the waterworks in the state.
The lawmaker said the House would be disposed to learn about the Public-Public Partnership (PuP) that the petitioners recommended as one of the solutions to the water crisis, even as he revealed that the Lagos Assembly has not approved the pilot PPP initiative of the LWC yet.
He also urged the LWC to immediately commence wide engagement with civil society and other groups on how to address the state’s water crisis.
Representatives of the civil society groups at the meeting include Philip Jakpor of RDI, Barrister Chima Williams of EDEN, Reverend Kolade Fadahunsi of the EWNA/BCA, Vicky Onyekuru of Child Health Organisation and representatives of the CFSF and NELCCI.
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