LET THE PUBLIC WATER SYSTEMS WORK!! WE SAY NO TO WATER PRIVATIZATION!!!

Recent statistics on those with access to water and sanitation in Nigeria are frightening as a huge army of the poor do not yet have access to clean potable water even as water born diseases are still rampant and claiming millions of lives .The National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) which is also operational in states and local governments as SEEDS and LEEDS respectively places emphasis on private sector led growth. This has also led to the push for water privatization in Nigeria.

Already, Lagos and Cross Rivers States public water utilities have been privatized under the guise of Public Private Partnership. Many more states public water boards are being slated for privatization as well. Dams for clean water are being built, huge sums of money have been allocated to different water ministries and agencies across the three tiers of government in the annual budgets as well as proceeds from Abacha loot repatriated from Switzerland and Debt relief proceeds from the Paris Club Debt deal. So much billions have gone to the water sector in the past five years, yet Human Development Report of 2006 which focused on Water says Nigeria will meet water target of the MDGs in 2047 if we continue at the present rate.

Government in a bid to shore up access is pushing down water privatization agenda in Nigeria which is being kicked by civil society activists working on water and sanitation.

‘’Granted that all stakeholders need to be involved in ensuring that the poor, the weak and marginalized have access to clean water, we believe that the private sector will put profit first before the people. I appreciate government’s commitment towards fighting corruption but this war should equally be fought in the water sector so that the teeming poor can have access. Government must not abdicate its responsibilities in meeting the social needs of its people, the most crucial being providing water,’’ says Mr. Leo Atakpu, National Coordinator, Nigeria Civil Society Network for Water and Sanitation (NEWSAN).

‘’As we mark this year’s World Water Day with the theme: Coping With Water Scarcity, I will like to call on government to stop regarding water as a table commodity and brace up to the old challenge of providing water to all Nigerians through the Public water system. We call on all Nigerians to join in the campaign to make clean water available for all ,’’ Atakpu submits.

‘’We need to galvanise efforts to mobilse resources to fund water projects in Nigeria. Government alone can not fund clean water but we do not need to dispose public utilities to get there .Let development partners put money in the public domain, clearly involving civil society,’’ Usman Mohammed of Society for Clean Water also a member of NEWSAN says.

For Further information contact:

Leo Atakpu
National Coordinator, NEWSAN