Water justice groups that met with members of the Lagos State House of Assembly today, September 9, in Lagos, have restated their opposition to plans by the Lagos Water Corporation (LWC) to embark on a pilot Public Private Partnership (PPP) in the water sector in Lagos.

The meeting followed a September 1, 2025 invitation to the groups in which the House of Assembly had acknowledged the joint petition by the six organisations on 18 August 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 Organisation and the New Life Community Care Initiative (NELCCI), were represented by their chief executives.

At the meeting, presided over by the Chair, Environmental Parastatal, Hon. Shabi Rassheed Adekola, who also doubles as representative of Lagos Mainland II Constituency, the groups queried the decision of the LWC to press ahead with the privatization agenda even when the 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 N789m released by the Lagos State Government for rehabilitation of the 48 mini and micro waterworks in Lagos.

Others are N2.7bn voted by the Lagos State Government and expended on the rehabilitation of Ishasi waterworks supervised by the Governor, N950 million budgeted for purchase of chemical for year 2023; N315 million paid as 50% advanced 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.

The groups demanded an investigation of the monies, their recovery and use in the rehabilitation of the waterworks. Additionally, they urged the Lagos government to learn from PPP failures in the United Kingdom and other countries across the globe that had experimented with the scheme on the prodding of the World Bank and its private arm – 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 were: 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 CFSF and NELCCI.