You owe Lagosians a response, ERA/FoEN tells Lagos Water Corporation

You owe Lagosians a response, ERA/FoEN tells Lagos Water Corporation

 UNDER RAINY CONDITIONS,GOVERNOR BABATUNDE FASHOLA INSPECTS THE ADIYAN WATERWORKS PROJECT IN LAGOS,NIGERIA

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) is worried that the Lagos State Water Corporation (LSWC) has been silent on the planned World Bank privatization of water in Lagos despite global calls for disclosure on the project which forced the bank to make two conflicting statements in the last one month.

Following a deluge of deluge of emails and calls to its  key officials by activists demanding disclosure of the agreements it had with the Lagos State government, the World Bank initially announced it had not signed any contract with the Lagos government.  But a week ago the bank contradicted itself by announcing it had cancelled the International Finance Corporation (IFC) official advisory role in the design of the privatization exercise. In all this, the Lagos State government had remained mute.

In a statement issued in Lagos, ERA/FoEN said: “While we welcome the cancellation of the IFC advisory contract after the World Bank double speak, we are dismayed by the Lagos State Water Corporation’s strange silence which has left Lagos residents in the dark”

ERA/FoEN Director, Corporate Accountability, Akinbode Oluwafemi said: “That Lagos residents know next to nothing about a project with such far-reaching implications is not only unacceptable, it leads us to believe that this is an attempt to clandestinely tie us to the loins of corporate power. The link is further proof that something not too good is going on under our noses.”

Oluwafemi revealed that attempts by ERA/FoEN to get a sense of what the privatisation deal entails have been met with official stonewall at the LSWC office where its officials told ERA/FoEN that they are not involved in any water plans with the World Bank.

“The mystery surrounding the Lagos water privatization deal resembles similar exercises in other sectors of the Nigerian economy that were carried out without due diligence or recourse to public consent and input. The water corporation cannot take control of 21 million people's water system.”

He stressed that examples across the globe have shown that IFC designs biased contracts that drive corporate profit, violate the human right to water, and undermine democracy and the public interest. 

“In the interest of the public we demand that the Lagos State government halt the embrace of a failed model of corporate-controlled and com modified water. This is our Lagos and our water is our right. The LSWC must speak up”, Oluwafemi insisted.