This was the resolution of participants at the National Summit on the Human Right to Water with the theme: Nigeria’s Water Emergency: From Resistance to Real Solutions Against Corporate Control on Wednesday, January 30, 2019.
There were reported cases of International Financial Corporation (IFC), World Bank Group visiting Lagos state in 2018, indicating interest to allegedly invest in the state’s public water sector, through Public Private Partnership (PPP) model.
But, Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, described the move as unacceptable as it is against the human right principle.
Alton believes access to water should be promoted and its affordability “must” be prioritised.
He urged the Lagos State government among others to ensure human right principle is considered in its efforts to provide potable water to the people.
“Some principles as comfortability, transparency, acceptability and accessibility should be key elements for any decision making to water supply provision. So I call on the governments to ensure they honour the human rights of water and sanitation principles as the key guidance to any decision making in Lagos.”
Similarly, Nnimmo Bassey, chairman board of ERA/FoEN, accused the private sector of trying to profit from the water crisis in Nigeria.
“Just as some persons, governments and corporations deny that climate change is caused mostly by human activities, so is the case with the water crisis,” Bassey said.
Also, Dr Otive Igbuzor, Executive Director, African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD), in his keynote address, titled, “The Nigerian Water Crisis and the Imperative of Rights-Based Solutions,” canvassed for access to water right describing water as a necessity to human survival.
“Water is very important for life and human survival. But the challenge is that the poorest of the poor do not have access to clean water and sanitation. There is a global water crisis and a Nigerian water crisis,” he said.
“The Nigerian water crisis is exacerbated by the crisis of the Nigerian state. The Nigerian State has gone beyond mediating the competing interest of the elite groups or being an instrument of the ruling class to become an instrument of deception. The end result of a dysfunctional and deceitful Nigerian state is that there is a crisis in all the sectors: Political, economic, social, educational, health, water etc.
“The water crisis cannot be solved in isolation. It requires the resolution of the crisis of the Nigerian state,” he added.
A communique issued at the end of the event called for a review of the water policy in Nigeria to make it mandatory for all states to collaborate with local governments to ensure that adequate fund is made available to resuscitate all water facilities.
It also called on African governments to reject privatisation projects designed by the World Bank and its corporate partners, including the Public-Private Partnership success myth the bank is aggressively marketing in poor and developing countries.
“A probe of all PPP projects, loans and funding for the existing water system and infrastructure nationwide, including at the state level, particularly in Lagos State since the assumption of office by the Governor Akinwunmi Ambode administration and the new management of the Lagos Water Corporation,” part of the communiqué read.
Tagged ‘Our Water, Our Right’, the two-day event drew participants made up of environmentalists, labor unions and CSOs from India, Philippines, United States and other nations of the world.