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United Nations calls for increased funding for water, sanitation in Lagos

23 Dec 2016

Summary

The UN Special Rapporteur said the government should consider alternative solutions including increasing the effectiveness of the public service provider, adopting necessary financing schemes, and reducing water losses.

Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode

A United Nations expert, Leo Heller, has urged the Lagos State government to allocate more funding in its 2017 budget to address the state’s dwindling water and sanitation services, according to a statement released on Thursday.

Heller, who is a UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, said the increased funding has become necessary following reports of considerable deficits in clean water and proper sanitation. The UN envoy said the conditions are unacceptable for the state’s 21 million residents.

The Special Rapporteur made his comments weeks after Governor Akinwunmi Ambode presented the 2017 budget to the state's House of Assembly on November 30th. Heller said the annual budget discussion is a chance for the city to take action in providing water and sanitation services as well as carter for vulnerable people.

“There is no question that the city's water and sanitation sector has deteriorated to this point because of the way it has been managed for many years,” he said.

According to Heller, only about 10 percent of the population in Lagos has access to water provided by the state water utility. As a result, residents often drill their own boreholes in an effort to get water, resulting in various environmental and health issues particularly contaminated water consumptions, he said.

The UN Special Rapporteur said the government should consider alternative solutions to the water and sanitation crisis, including increasing the effectiveness of the public service provider, adopting necessary financing schemes, and reducing water losses.

“For more than a decade, the Government has adopted a hard-line policy according to which the solution would seem to only attract private capital, notably via public-private partnerships (PPPs). Numerous civil society groups have urged the Government to guarantee their right to participate in these processes,” Heller said.

 


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