Loan taken from the World Bank, the bulk of it does not come to the benefiting countries. The technology, the capital, and the interest go back to the Western World
By Ishaya Ibrahim
Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), a leading public policy NGO, reveals in a new report how the World Bank’s loan instruments for water reforms have plunged Nigeria into a devastating cycle of debt and water scarcity.
The 59-page report reveals how public taps in Nigeria once ran with water until the 1980s when the World Bank and IMF started promoting the privatisation of water.
These privatisation reforms touted as a solution to Nigeria’s debt crisis, have instead worsened the situation, deepening debt and leaving taps without water.
“The continent’s postcolonial economic and debt crises provided the perfect opening for the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to impose Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) and austerity measures, which argued that borrowing states must make certain adjustments to become viable members of the International economy or even meet their debt obligations,” the report noted.
As a result, the report noted that the World Bank and its sister organisation, the IMF, heavily championed the commodification of water and even invested over 250 million dollars in Nigeria for water across many states. Despite these interventions, water, the most essential need of man, has stopped running in many taps.
The report noted: “Private sector involvement in water services typically entails profit-making mechanisms, workforce downsizing, tariff increases and other changes that shift control away from public institutions.”
To understand the problem, CAPPA deployed a team of researchers to communities in Ekiti, Bauchi and Rivers states. These states are among the beneficiaries of the World Bank water intervention.
CAPPA’s Water Program Officer, Sefa Ikpa, highlighted the challenge of the water crisis during the launch of the report on Friday, March 28 in Lagos.
Citing communities in Bauchi, Rivers and Ekiti where they visited for field investigation, Ikpa quoted the field engineer at Ero dam in Ekiti who said all the water infrastructure is on the ground but can’t work because the equipment can only be operational when there’s a 24-hour uninterrupted power supply. “They have not been able to achieve that in the state for months. So, the equipment is just lying fallow. The water is not running,” she said.
CAPPA Executive Director, Akinbode Olowafemi said the water crisis confronting Nigeria and much of Africa is the outcome of decades-long state withdrawal from public investments, coupled with the aggressive imposition of neoliberal policies falsely presented as pathways to development.
He said: “Privatisation and commercialisation are widely promoted as efficient solutions to public sector shortcomings. Proponents of this approach argue that market mechanisms naturally foster investment and operational efficiency. Yet, the empirical reality from Ekiti, Rivers and Bauchi states tells a markedly different story. Instead of improved water access and infrastructure, citizens experience steep tariff hikes, workforce downsizing, diminished public accountability, and continued systemic inefficiencies.”
Dr Gideon Adeyeni, who was also in the research team remarked that their findings show that World Bank interventions in water projects in Nigeria are more of a failure than success.
Assistant Director at CAPPA, Zikora Ibeh, argues that public water was functional when it was being managed by the state. “Such essential services should not be left in the hands of private capital who care more about profit than public good,” she said.
Professor Adelaja Odutola Odukoya, the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Lagos said the World Bank was made for the Western World, not to advance the development of Africa and other poor countries. He said whatever loan is taken from the World Bank, the bulk of it does not come to the benefiting countries. “The technology, the capital, and the interest go back to the Western World. It’s a circle, he said, adding that local politicians are interested in getting the loans so that they can loot it, saying development is not on the agenda.
Comrade Hassan Taiwo Soweto, in his contribution, said water is so critical to be left in the hands of the private sector.
Soweto said even in the most developed part of the world, some of these utilities are not left totally to private interest because of their national security significance so that somebody does not poison a dam and undermine the health of the entire country.
Comrade Gbenga Komolafe, General Secretary of the Federation of Informal Workers of Nigeria (FIWON), lamented the failure of the states in managing public utilities, saying developments in Nigeria have been on the decline.
