Activists Asking to Halt Water Schemes
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Government
The Environmental Rights Action Urged Lagos State Government to Stop the Implementation of Water Plan Funded by World Bank
In a statement issued in Lagos, the group said that theschemes seemed tailored to meeting Nigerians' water needs but areactually "white elephant projects." ERA/FoEN said that its warning is coming on the heels of the FederalExecutive Council, FEC, approval of a 16-year water master plan whichwill see Nigeria's Ministry of Water Resources partnering with theJapan International Agency to implement the project in three phases.
The first phase of the water master plan would run from 2014 and 2020,while the second and third phases would run from 2021 to 2025, and2026 to 2030 respectively. The scheme, which will be due for review by2030, will provide the guidelines for private sector participation inthe water sector under a Public Private Partnership, PPP, arrangement to fund the sector.
Sarah Ochekpe, the Minister of Water Resources, while arguing that theprivatization master plan highlighted the inadequacy of governmentfunding of the water sector, proposed the commercialisation of waterservices to increase the revenue base of the sector for themaintenance of facilities and development of new ones.
According to ERA/FoEN, water privatization is also vigorously beingpursued in Lagos by the World Bank's private arm, the InternationalFinance Corporation, IFC, the same institution that is said to haveadvised the Manila government, designed its water contracts, and theninvested in one of the resulting water corporations. Mr. Oluwafemi described the master plan and World Bank-funded waterschemes in Lagos as "merry-go-round" that will neither deliver on thescheme nor provide Nigerians needed water.
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