By Valentine Amanze, Online Editor
A civil society network of women, Africa Women Water Sanitation & Hygiene Network (AWWASHNet), and other women groups have condemned the deepening rot of water infrastructure in Lagos State and the lack of political will to restore the pride of place of public water infrastructure.
They also advised the Lagos State government to jettison the idea of water privatization and ensure that Lagosians/ Nigerians have adequate public water supply.
The women, drawn from the Labour movement, Civil Society and Communities of Lagos State aired their voice during an open conversation in Lagos to strengthen the struggle for water justice as part of their contribution to mark the World Water Day on Tuesday.
In their presentations, Vickie Uremma of Child Health Organization; and Associate Director of CAPPA Africa, Aderonke Ige, decried the poor attention given to such an important issue as water, stressing that water is the most basic human need, and women unfortunately bear the highest brunt of lack of water.
“Women, girls and persons with special needs are the most affected by acute water shortage as they continue to struggle for these unavailable but important resources in the midst of obvious lack of will by the government to channel the right resources into public water infrastructure’’ Ige said.
But, Betty Abah of CEEHope, who gave a goodwill message at the event, said, “The poor state of the nation’s water resources is a symptom of poor management and maladjusted focus of government on public interest’’.
In her contribution, Mary Modupeola Lateef-Yusuf of the Nigerian Labour Congress established the connection between unhealthy water sources and the environment while enunciating the dastardly health implications of resorting to unwholesome sources to access water due to the failure of public water.
While lending their voices to the discourse, the Lagos Chairperson, Comrade Oluwatoyin Shokunbi; and Ngozi Edet, both of the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporation Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE) agreed that privatization of public water was inimical to free access and affordability of water to ordinary citizens and therefore unacceptable.
The group however agreed that in line with the theme of World Water Day 2021, which is “Valuing Water’’, water ought, currently to have attained a pride of place in Nigerian Laws and Policies as a Human right, in line with the declaration of the United Nations in resolution 64/292 on July 28, 2010.
Besides, the AWWASHNet Coordinator, Veronica Nwaya, stressed the need for women’s voices to be centred within important issues of state and governance, especially where they are directly affected.
At the end of the workshop, the group, issued a communique, which among other recommendations, demanded immediate shutdown of the water privatization idea, which the Lagos State government has been tinkering with. The demand, the group stressed, extended to the National Water Resources Bill which was secretly re-introduced at the National Assembly in 2020, and which has water privatization written all over it.
