By Kingsley Adegboye

The time has come for the Lagos state government to develop its own policy on water and sanitation for  the efficient and effective management of the sub-sector.

This viewpoint was  unanimously canvassed by participants at  a one-day stakeholders’ workshop on the draft water and sanitation policy for Lagos State put together by the State Water Corporation. The proposed policy will serv as a catalyst to develop the vast water resources in Lagos State in a socially responsive manner, that is economically sound and environmentally friendly.

Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello who spoke at forum described  a policy as the road map and soul of an organization. According to him, an organization will be groping in the dark if it attempts to implement a development programme without a statement of intentions, targets and strategies of achieving the targets.

He said the state government had vigorously worked to implement water and sanitation programmes and projects to achieve the vison of state wide access to clean water and sanitation facilities, which had resulted in the construction and rehabilitation of new and existing mini and micro water as well as waste water works under the World Bank funded Second National Urban Water Sector Reform Project.

Group Managing Director of Lagos State Water Corporation, Mr. Shayo Holloway, an engineer,  said the policy had become necessary because “we cannot continue to do things in the old ways, given the pressure of demand for services in the state”.

Holloway explained that the reform became imperative in view of the  low revenue collection, challenging service delivery and government’s inability to provide all funding to meet the ever increasing demand for potable water supply and adequate sanitation.

He stated that  before the commencement of PPP approach in the sector, a realistic cost pricing of water utility should be considered to mitigate challenges of good service delivery.

Mr. Holloway said the essence of the workshop was to officially declare government’s intention to assist the LWC in the drafting and put in place necessary legislation in the implementation of the policy in the state.

The National Coordinator, National Urban Water Supply and Rural Projects in the Federal Ministry of Water Resources,  Mr. Benson Ajisegiri said that  Nigeria’s current access to water supply stands at 58.44 per cent, while access to  sanitation is 31 per cent.

According to him, “in water supply, we have slightly moved up from 58 percent to 58.44 percent whereas in sanitation there has been a decline from 38 percent to 31 percent.

This is why we are making conscious efforts to develop policies to make  more progress. States are also expected to develop their own policies and have their own targets. The national target for us to achieve for the MDG is 75 per cent.