.Asks governor to tell Lagosians the truth
By Daniel Kanu
Assistant Politics Editor, Lagos
Our Water Our Rights Coalition has asked the Lagos State Governor, Akinwumi Ambode, to tell Lagosians the truth about the state government’s privatization agenda on water.
This followed what the group described as dubious, suspicious, lack of transparency and greed on how the state government has been executing its privatization agenda.
The group said that it raised the alarm because of disturbing findings on the rushed attempt to privatize eight water projects without due process or “at least being subjected to public debate”.
The coalition said that everything about the water project was doubtful and shrouded in corruption, warning that the group would stop at nothing to expose all the atrocities Lagos State government has embarked upon to defraud Lagosians using the Public Private Partnership (PPP) as a decoy.
Akinbode Oluwafemi, the deputy executive director, Environmental Rights Action / Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) who spoke in Lagos on Thursday described PPP as fraud.
He said, “From all indications the Lagos PPP project is not of any advantage to the people but for selfish interest and greed of the few”.
He urged Lagosians to rise up against “a subtle way to sell the collective patrimony of the people to few families”, advising that the citizens must resist it.
According to him, “Our fears that something was in the offing was confirmed on May 15, barely a week after the visit when Global water Intelligence magazine — a high value business information for the water industry — disclosed that multiple PPP projects were in the works for Lagos, some moving quickly.
“Surprisingly, no such disclosure was on the Lagos Water Corporation (LWC) website as we speak. Some of the identified projects: Adiyan 11, Igbonla, Yewa 1, Odomola 11, Ibeshe 1, Ibeshe 11 and Yewa 11 have project lengths of up to 35 years and were only updated on GWI water tracker a week before the World Bank executive visit and Engr. Mumuni Badmus, the helmsman of the LWC, is personally listed as the contact person for the project listing on GWI.
“Lagos State has a target of 745 million gallons per day water treatment capacity by 2020. We are worried that if these PPP projects should move forward it will translate to private control of a gripping 57 percent of the entire Lagos water system target capacity.”
Besides, the group had disclosed that the PPP project on water was “corruption and lack of transparency intertwined.
“With the GWI revelation, the Lagos State government has awarded the Igbonla project to Brio Resources Technologies and ACUAMED. The project which, ironically is listed as a water treatment plant in GWI but described as a desalination plant by Brio Resources Technologies.
“Brio says that this Odomola 11 project is for a 25-year-concession to build a desalination plant, at an estimated cost of US$288 million. Brio says it is a desalination plant and GWI says it is a water treatment plant. What this shows is a lack of transparency from the LWC management on these projects.”
Our Water Our Rights group however urged Lagosians to demand further probe of Visionscape, a refuge management firm for the state, insisting that “Lagos has gradually become home of filth”.
It noted that all the consortia shortlisted for Lagos water project had baggage to contend with.
Comrade Opaleye Taiwo, the Lagos State chairman, AUPTRE, said at an interview that all attempt to privatize water in Lagos was borne out of selfishness, saying that if the Lagos water project is well funded there was no need for any PPP project as the corporation was capable of providing adequate water.
For the renowned Labour leader, Comrade Ayodele Akele, “The public sector will be privatized at the peril of Lagosians. There is no need for PPP, what is happening is for them to take our assets through the backdoor. Governor Ambode as a toddler benefited from free water in Lagos; why this privatization? We will resist him”.