Appolonia Adeyemi 
Ahead of World Water Day 2025 slated for, Saturday, March 22, 2025 water justice groups in Nigeria have released a report outlining the causes of poor access to potable water in the country and detailing solutions to the crisis.
The report, titled Dry Taps: A Damning Verdict on the State of Water Utilities in Nigeria, presents findings from fact-finding exercises, including visits to water utilities in six States namely Enugu, Edo, Lagos, Oyo, Kogi, and Kano.
The investigations were conducted by the Renevlyn Development Initiative (RDI), New Life Community Care Initiative (NELCCI), Citizens Free Service Forum (CFSF), Ecumenical Water Network Africa (EWN-A), Environmental Defenders Network (EDEN), and the Socio-Economic Research and Development Centre (SERDEC), in collaboration with the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations Civil Service Technical and Recreational Service Employees (AUPCTRE).
The report uncovered widespread issues, including ageing and crumbling infrastructure due to lack of maintenance, poor funding for water treatment chemicals, erratic power supply forcing reliance on costly alternative energy sources, manpower shortages, and irregular payment of workers’ salaries.
During the public presentation of the report in Abuja, AUPCTRE General Secretary, Sikiru Waheed, explained that while the research covered only six of Nigeria’s 36 states, it was designed to capture a state from each geographical zone, providing insight into the broader water crisis across the country.
He noted that due to manpower and resource constraints, the research focused on cities, as it is already well established that rural communities, where 70 per cent of Nigeria’s population resides, rely on streams, rivers, private water vendors, and boreholes for their domestic water needs.
Executive Director of RDI, Philip Jakpor, stated that their investigations merely confirmed an already glaring reality.
He said the blame for Nigeria’s worsening water crisis lies squarely with the government at both state and federal levels, which continues to allocate funds to the sector without any tangible results.
He described it as a calculated effort to cripple water utilities and create an excuse for privatization.
Executive Director of EDEN, Chima Williams, lamented that across all the states visited, governments are merely making empty promises about ensuring access to potable water, while in reality, water utilities built with billions of naira have been neglected.
He described the situation as both shocking and depressing.
Executive Director of CFSF, Sani Baba, warned that continued government neglect of water utilities could lead to a catastrophic public health crisis.
He criticized the growing push for privatization in states like Lagos and Kano, arguing that it ignores the plight of rural communities that are already struggling with water access.
The findings from the six states exposed severe lapses in water supply infrastructure. In Kano, the three existing waterworks combined only serve less than 10 per cent of the city’s population.
In Enugu, despite reports that the previous administration allocated billions of naira to expanding the water supply network, there is little evidence of any improvements, and the Enugu Water Corporation currently has only 11,234 registered customers.
At the Eleyele Scheme in Ibadan, multiple electricity generators are required to pump water due to erratic power supply.
In Edo, the Ikpoba River Dam, which was once the main source of water for the headworks in Ugbowo and Iyaro, has been abandoned, with private fish ponds now occupying the vicinity. Once capable of producing over 90 million gallons daily, the dam is now non-functional due to the neglect of its pumping facility.
Kogi State is also experiencing a severe water crisis, as the Greater Lokoja Waterworks and other zonal sub-stations remain shut down since the 2022 floods.
In Lagos, despite a ₦760 million investment in rehabilitating 48 mini and micro waterworks in 2017, the sector continues to deteriorate.
The state had already been experiencing a daily water supply deficit of 500 million gallons, yet subsequent allocations have yielded no significant improvements.
Many waterworks remain inoperative or barely functional, while the Adiyan and Iju Waterworks, visited during the investigation, are operating far below their installed capacities.
In response to these alarming findings, the groups have made several recommendations to the government.
They are calling for the immediate declaration of a state of emergency in the water sector and for the inclusion of broad public participation in policy formulation to achieve universal access.
They are also demanding that both federal and state governments reject all forms of water privatization and commodification while fully upholding the human right to water as a fundamental government obligation.
The activists have called for a thorough probe into the billions of naira allocated for water projects across the country, many of which have yielded little to no results.
They are urging the government to strengthen public accountability in the management of water resources and take urgent action to revive the nation’s failing water infrastructure.
Without swift intervention, they warn, Nigeria could be headed for a full-blown water crisis with severe public health consequences.
