The Minister of Water Resources, Mr Suleiman Adamu, has said that Nigeria needs not less than N6trillion to meet the demands for water supply infrastructure in the country.
Adamu said this at the 28th Regular Meeting of the National Council on Water Resources in Abuja, yesterday.
This is as organised labour, civil society organisations (CSOs), and Public Service International (PSI), yesterday, rejected federal and state governments’ planned privatisation of potable water supply in the country.
The minster, who noted that major challenges facing the sustainable development of the water sector were funding, poor water governance, obsolete infrastructure, amongst others, said the meeting was an opportunity to discuss developments in the water sector, evaluate issues, address identified challenges and chart a way forward towards resolving contemporary challenges.
Speaking on the theme, “Emerging Financial and Management Challenges for Sustainable Water Infrastructure in Nigeria”, Adamu said a review of water governance, sustainable financing, pricing for water services was being considered.
He said resolutions from the last council meeting saw the need for states to key into the current Partnership for Expanded Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (PEWASH) initiative of the Federal Government.
This, he noted, is being piloted in some states in a performance approach through the provision of separate budget line in the state rural agency of water supply and sanitation agencies.
He added that the World Bank had committed $700million to support Nigeria in its National WASH Action plan towards revitilisation of the sector through the Sustainable Urban and Rural Water Supply and sanitation Hygiene (SURWASH) programme.
“SURWASH is expected to provide six million people with basic drinking water services and 1.4 million people access to improved sanitation services.
“The programme will deliver improved WASH services to 2,000 schools and healthcare facilities and assist communities to achieve open defecation-free status’’.
Earlier, UNICEF WASH Manager, Mr Oumar Dombouya, said the 2019 National Outcome Routine Mapping of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Service Levels (WASH-NORM), showed that 30per cent of the people in Nigeria (60million people) do not have access to clean water.
He noted that UNICEF had been giving its support to change this narrative through Village Level Operation and Maintenance to improve functionality and sustainability of water facilities across the country.
Dombouya pledged the commitment of the UN body to support durable and cost effective interventions towards making the country meet its SDG target by 2030.
The National Consultant, Public Health and Environment, Dr Edwin Isotu-Edeh, representing the WHO Nigeria Country Representative, said it was worrisome that one in three persons still lack access to basic drinking water globally.
He said there was need to democratise access to WASH services in the county, saying states must emulate what was being done in the federal level to ensure sustainability.
“States can emulate what was being done by the Federal Government, ad all stakeholders ought to put water as a key component of all interventions’’.
Mr Olusade Adesola, who represented the FCT Minister, Dr Mohammed Bello, said provision of clean and safe clean drinking water to FCT residents was top priority of the Federal Government through the FCT Administration.
He listed challenges of population explosion, inadequate funding, amongst others, saying implementable policies were underway to address this need.
“The water sector is faced with old and emerging challenges that has prevented us from emerging our target in this sector, providing infrastructure for regular water supply is very capital intensive.
“While the projected population of the FCT by year 2020 ought to be three million, the actual population as at 2018 and 2019 had risen to six million, this has placed enormous demand and pressure on significant resources to meet the infrastructural need.
“That is why you see new territories, layouts, districts are being opened without the corresponding provision of infrastructural facilities’’.
Adesola said the work was ongoing to complete the greater Abuja Water Supply Project, saying it was a bilateral initiative to enhance water supply to 33 districts in the FCT.
He added that the administration was also carrying out activities to improve access to potable water supply for the FCT residents in partnership with the organised private sector.
However, organised labour, civil society organisations (CSOs), and Public Service International (PSI), yesterday, have rejected federal and state governments’ planned privatisation of potable water supply in the country.
Briefing newsmen in Lagos, National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE), Corporate Accountability & Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) and PSI, an umbrella body for public service sector unions across the globe rallied Nigerians to oppose the National Water Bill (NWB), claiming that the bill “is anti-people and will make portable inaccessible to most Nigerians.”
At a joint news briefing, they advised Nigerians to take a cue from the privatisation of electricity supply eight years ago but had failed to improve power supply while consumers had been over-burdened with crazy bills for darkness.
Speaking, General Secretary of AUPCTRE, Sikiru Waheed, said the best option was Public, Public Participation (PPP), insisting that “access to safe and adequate water is crucial to the quality of life of the citizenry. Privatisation will price water above the reach of the poor.
“Privatisation will lead to job losses to privatisers who are only interested in maximising profits. Cities that privatised water are now reversing their decisions and reversing the exercise. From Buenos Aires to Manila, Paris and across the globe the story is the same. This is exactly the reason we do not want Nigeria to take that path.”
Waheed lamented that “we have equally observed that some states are still bent on privatising their water resources. Of particular concern is the report we are getting from Lagos, Ekiti, Plateau, Bayelsa and Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory. We implore governments in Nigeria to develop the political will and swing into action in order to improve water infrastructure for regular water supply to the citizens.
“Also, privatisation should not be seen as the only option for reviving water facilities across the country. Policies makers are, therefore, advised to embrace democratic control of water that is environmentally sustainable and provide decent work as the true representatives of the people.”
Earlier, President of NUEE, Engr. Martine Uzoegwu, among others, contended that the government mantra was that the private sector would provide infrastructure and utilities more effectively and attract investment, declaring that the privatisation of the electricity would address “Grid energy insufficiency and instability, network infrastructure challenges (overloaded transformers and feeders, obsolete equipment, limited network, lack of automation, etc), gas limitation to the generation companies, annual water shortages at the hydro-generation station.
“The government also said privatisation would address metering challenges (huge metering gap of over 6,000,000, estimated billing, poor meter maintenance, etc), operational challenges (long feeders, quality of the workforce, large operational areas, etc), funding challenges (absence of long term ‘patient’ capital (equity/debt) to fund investment, high cost of borrowing, poor history of DisCos, etc), Lack of investment/upgrade of equipment and facilities, lack of diversification to other forms of energy, health, safety, and environmental issues.”
He lamented that eight years after, “Tariffs have been increased three times now and the fourth is imminent. This continues to put additional burdens on Nigerians who do not actually enjoy adequate power supply. The only beneficiaries of this regime are generator importers who continue to have a field day.”
Representative of PSI, Abi Badru, said: “all over the world the issue of access to potable water is a fundamental right that has the backing of PSI and the global group will continue to support Nigerian public sector workers to ensure access to potable water is not priced out of the reach of the common man.”
Similarly, speaking on behalf of the CSOs, representative of CAPPA, Philips Japu, urged Nigerians to join forces to stop both the federal and state governments from privatising water supply, warning that “NWB, is anti-people, anti-poor and will worsen the poverty level across the country. Even the borehole in your houses will be taxed by the government once the National Water Bill sailed through.”