Water Is A Free Gift, Not Allowed To Be Tampered With

– A Group said that access to water is a free gift nature and must not be allowed to be tampered with

– Dr. Hussaini Abdu, speak on human right to water which, he said, entitles everyone without discrimination

– He concluded that privatisation has largely failed across the globe and that citizens must be part of the solutions

The Environmental Rights Action/ Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/ FoEN) has said that access to water is a free gift of nature and must not be allowed to be tampered with by corporations and private interests, whose only objective is to make profit.

This statement was made at a stakeholders’ dialogue tagged “The Lagos Water Crisis; setting agenda for the Sanwo-Olu administration in the water sector” and organised by the Environmental Rights Action/ Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/ FoEN) and held in Lagos.

In his keynote address titled “The Lagos Water Crisis and the Imperative for Sustainable Solutions”, the Country Director of Plan International Nigeria, Dr. Hussaini Abdu, speak on human right to water which, he said, entitles everyone without discrimination to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses.

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He concluded that privatisation has largely failed across the globe and that citizens must be part of the solutions since international financial institutions have never addressed municipal challenges.

Similarly, the president, Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service, Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE), Comrade Benjamin Anthony, said that the budgetary allocation to the water sector is still abysmally low and does not reflect the much-talked about commitment of the government to address the challenge to access.

At the end of the dialogue, the group agreed that government should report massive corruption in the water sector across the states and at the national level, which are alarming and are yet to be probed.