Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), with other 184 national and international right groups have sent a strong worded letter to Lagos state governor, Akinwunmi Ambode to stop current efforts to secure public private partnership (PPP) on water privatization.
The groups asked Ambode to be genuinely committed to public funding of water and to follow robust and accountable democratic process for implementing any legislation relating to water and sanitation.
Some signatories to the letter include among others, Alliance for Democracy, USA, Climate Aid Initiative, Nigeria, Asha Parivar, India, Association for the Defence of Water and Sanitation, Senegal, Campaign for Climate Justice, Nepal, Blue Planet Project, South Africa, Academic Stand Against Poverty (ASAP), W.A, All Pakistan Labour Federation, Pakistan, Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open leadership, Nigeria, African Law Foundation, Nigeria.
Several key government functionaries in the Lagos State government were copied in the letter which included: Lagos State Commissioner for Environment, Dr. Samuel Babatunde Adejare, Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa, and Chairman, House Committee on Environment, Lagos State House of Assembly Hon. Dayo Saka Fafunmi.
In the statement signed by Philip Jakpor, Head, Media and Campaign, the groups also expressed aversion to the Lagos State Water Corporation for pursuing multiple concessions and other corporate contracts, including a 25-year concession for the Adiyan II project, and a PPP for the Odomola project.
“Today a strong-worded letter from the Our Water Our Right Coalition and our allies across the globe was delivered to the office of Governor Ambode asking him to push back on plans to embark on Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in the Lagos water sector” the statement noted.
The statement noted further that the aversion of the public against plans by the Lagos State government to embark on PPP in the water sector must not be ignored but respected.