Nigeria’s Niger Delta region is one of the largest wetlands in the world. It is a source of great irony, therefore, that people living in the area struggle to get hold of clean drinking water: they take what they can from creeks and rivers.
”To drink water in this village is a problem for us. As you come here now, we can’t give you the water to drink; if we give it to you we are poisoning you,” says Daniel Akpere of Okuokolo village.
Part of the blame for this situation is laid at the door of petroleum companies that operate in the oil-rich region: activists accuse them of polluting water supplies. The lack of potable water in the delta also points to failures in government policy, however.
Nigeria’s Ministry of Water Resources says efforts over the past century to develop national water resources have not amounted to much: in 1999, only 30% of Nigerians had access to potable water.
Providing safe drinking water for all of the country’s 120-million people will require considerable investment in the construction of new dams and water works — and in the repair of existing water facilities, most of which are in a very bad state.
The commercial capital of Lagos would require the largest investment, as about 10% of the population is concentrated in this city. Olumuyiwa Coker, CEO of the Lagos State Water Corporation (LSWC), says that in the next 10 to 15 years about $2-billion will have to be spent to meet the water needs of the city’s growing number of residents.
But, funds for this investment are in desperately short supply.
”Production of water is extremely capital intensive and given the population of Lagos state, there is no way the government can sustain such an investment,” observes Coker. Nigeria’s other 35 states are also unable to shoulder the burden of providing water for their populations.
The central government announced recently that it would assist cash-strapped states with their water programmes. President Olusegun Obasanjo has unveiled a new funding formula under which the central government would provide 50% of the money needed for all rural water projects — and 30% for urban projects.
The head of state said he hoped this plan would encourage states to intensify efforts at providing water. The government also hopes that the funding formula will move Nigeria closer to achieving one of the targets set out in the millennium development goals, namely to ensure that the number of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water is halved by 2015.
Admirable as the formula appears, some view it with scepticism.
”Saying it is one thing and actualising it is another thing. We are yet to receive anything from the federal government,” says Coker.
He also opposes the idea that the government should fund water projects alone.
”I don’t believe in injecting public funds into utilities. That model does not work: [the] government has no business in business — and [as] services provided by utilities are really a business … you must run them as business,” says Coker.
”Clearly the old model has failed and we need to look at new ways of operating the industry such that it is socially responsible and also efficiently run, so it meets the needs of the people.”
Tunji Lardner Jnr, senior communications adviser for the LSWC, says it has started an initiative to encourage private-sector participation in water provision — and that this has already helped boost the water supply in Lagos.
But, the increased availability of potable water in the commercial centre is unlikely to be welcomed by everyone. Over the years, private water vendors have taken advantage of inadequate supplies to make a fortune selling drinking water to Nigerians. The cost of a day’s supply of water from these vendors is estimated to be the equivalent of what one would pay for a month’s supply of public water, if this were available.
Coker claims that the vendors have been vandalising water installations to frustrate the LSWC’s effort to provide potable water in Lagos: ”We have traced a lot of the vandalisation we have experienced to the informal market … As LSWC has improved its performance, there has been a direct correlation of a high level of vandalisation of our facilities.”
No matter what the difficulties, however, authorities will not be able to escape demands for better water provision — in Lagos and beyond. People in many parts of northern Nigeria are also experiencing water shortages because the advancing Sahara desert has dried up some of their water sources. Lake Chad — the largest lake in the country — has shrunk 60% in recent years. — IPS