…Only 10 percent of residents access portable water…
“Cold pure water! Fine pure water!” shouts a girl hawking drinking water
on the streets of Lagos, a bustling metropolis almost completely
surrounded by water.
This shout echoes out in all towns and many villages across Africa’s
most populous country and the continent’s largest oil producer.
These small cellophane water bags – unlike tap water – are readily available, and come chilled.
Water experts say that they are anything but pure, but that means
nothing to the millions of Nigerians who have no access to good, clean
water.
Lagos is the unofficial headquarters of the “pure” water industry and has many fans.
“It is neatly presented and easily available. In Lagos it is much
more dangerous to take tap water than pure water,” an enthusiastic
customer explains.
Detractors complain, however, that pure water producers – who are
meant to drill boreholes and purify the water privately – pilfer the
water from state water pipes.
Until some years ago, these pipes reached woefully few areas of the city.
But the chief executive officer of the Lagos Water Corporation,
Olumuyiwa Coker, says things are slowly improving since he’s come to the
helm of the state authority.
“Right now we have 50% coverage. We expect that in the next 10 years
that should increase to between 70%-80%. What we inherited four of five
years ago was really a sector that was virtually comatose,” he says.
Epileptic electricity
Lagos’s first potable water supply plant was established at Iju, more
than 80 years ago. Today the city’s population – an estimated 20million –
has far outstripped the production capacity of the Iju Waterworks.
So with only half the population having potable water – and that’s
when the pumps are working – have state authorities simply being
ignoring the problem?
Not more than 10 per cent of Lagos’s resident have no access to potable water
It appears not: a much bigger second plant to boost supply has been
built at Adiyan, reputed to be the biggest in Africa. “This plant was
commissioned in 1991 to produce 70million gallons per day,” Production
Manager Mustapha Olajide Agiri says.
“Technically there is no problem. Our major constraint is with the
power supply, as on average we only get about 16 hours a day.”
Indeed, at both Iju and Adiyan waterworks, it is the epileptic
electricity supply from the national energy company that is hampering
production and bumping up costs. They have to resort to diesel
generators which, officials say, makes the production very expensive.
Money matters
As far as the public is concerned, however, the main water problem,
apart from insufficiency, is its quality. But the production engineer
at Iju Waterworks is adamant that his plant meets international
standards.
“It has good stability and a pH of 7.0, which is one of the best in
the world. The quality of the water we pump is comparable even with
Europe,” Ehunmi said.
He explains that the colouring found in tap water in many areas is a
result of contamination in the pipes laid by consumers to take the water
into their premises.
The UN’s target to halve the number of people without safe drinking
water by 2015 is something the Lagos Water Corporation is committed to,
Mr Coker says.
“Essentially what it entails is increasing our infrastructure to
probably twice the size it is now by 2015. But to do this, the
corporation needs resources, which is unlikely to be forthcoming from
the state government and other sources of revenue such as the
participation with the private sector are being considered. We need
between $1.8bn to $2bn in the next 10 years to actualise these goals”,
he says
As in so many other sectors, it is the availability of funds that
will eventually decide whether or not the people of Lagos beat poverty
and get good, safe drinking water in 10 years’ time.
Government both at the Federal and State levels and the Private
sector have been at the fore front of providing portable water for the
populace. Nigeria Water and Sanitation Association, NIWASA, is the
umbrella body for water Engineers and Sanitation expert in Nigeria.
At a stakeholders forum to sensitize residents of Lagos West
Senatorial District, last week, the Technical committee for the
development of the water supply and sanitation sector policy for Lagos
state, disclosed that only 2.1 million out of about 20 million residents
of the state have access to portable water daily. This represents some
10 per cent of the residents.
It is worthy of note that the state government, through the Lagos
Water Corporation, LWC, has three major water works: Iju, Adiyan and
Isasi works and 48 mini schemes scattered across the state. It has also
completed the construction of the Ota-Ikosi Water Works that will be
commissioned later in the year. When fully in operation, it is expected
to increase the total installed water production capacity for the state
to 900 million litres per day. These are expected to provide water
sufficiently for 8 million residents of the state.
Over 70 per cent of houses in Lagos lack public water supply. The
major source of water is through boreholes and wells while other
residents patronises water hawkers, known as “Merua” who sell at
exorbitant prices.
Those who can not afford them trek long distances to fetch water from
public taps or get cheaper water vendors. One of the unwholesome
practices is that in some cases desperate residents go for any burst
water pipe, no matter the location to get water for their domestic
needs. Some of the pipes are located in the gutters, refuse sites among
others.
