Six civil society groups have sent a petition to the Lagos State House of Assembly urging it to halt the privatisation plans being implemented by the Lagos Water Corporation (LWC).

The rights groups are the Renevlyn Development Initiative (RDI), Citizens Free Service Forum (CFSF), the Environmental Defenders Network (EDEN), Child Health Organisation, New Life Community Care Initiative (NELCCI), and the Ecumenical Water Network Africa/Blue Communities Africa (EWNA/BCA).

The LWC had organised a Stakeholders’ Engagement on the Pilot Public-Private Partnership (PPP) for Lagos Water Corporation on the 15th of August 2025 in Ikeja with support from WaterAid.

The engagement was to secure private financing for infrastructural development and public buy in for the privatisation initiative.

But the groups in a petition to the House of Assembly, made available to the media, said that the event was only portrayed as public participation in decision-making when in actual fact it aimed to ram the PPP down the throats of Lagosians.

They said that the organisers of the event disregarded the rejection of privatisation including the PPP by Lagos residents, pretending as if the initiative enjoyed support.

They explained that their concern is further heightened by comments credited to Chairman of the Lagos State House of Assembly Committee on Information, Steven Ogundipe, who promised swift legislative backing for the PPP initiative when he was making his remarks at the event..

Pointing to the privatisation failure in the UK which the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and other donors had always peddled as a success story, they noted that investors in England and Wales’ water sector (largely driven by profits) withdrew over £85.2bn from the 10 water and sewerage firms since the industry was privatised more than 30 years ago. 

This information which shows distrust and disinvestment in the privatisation exercise, came to light in a 2024 report by the Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU) of the University of Greenwich.

Blaming lack of access to water in Lagos on failure in legislative oversight, the groups urged the House to investigate budgetary allocations to the water sector since 1999.

In their prayers they called for a halt to the ongoing privatization plans by the LWC, termination of all partnerships and collaborations that aim to foist water privatization on Lagos including the arrangements with WaterAid, and increase in budgetary allocation to the water sector plus pin point oversight on how the monies are spent.

For effective management of the water utilities, they urged the state government to carry out a comprehensive study on the successes of the Public-Public-Partnership (PuP) model which has worked in many countries and its suitability for adoption in Lagos State.