BY OLAYINKA OYEGBILE
“Water… e no get enemy…”, so sang Abami Eda Fela Anikulapo in one of his numerous songs. This holds a lot of wisdom. He crooned that there is nothing you want to do that you’ll not need water. The Yoruba in their wisdom also say water is ero (solution) to all problems. Samuel Coleridge in his poem ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ emphasizes the importance of this all-round crucial liquid to human life.
It is therefore surprising that the World Bank and some other international financial institutions have been pushing governments, especially in the developing world to treat water as a commodity to be sold and not a human rights issue. It is part of efforts to make water accessible to majority of citizens that the Corporate Accountability and Pubic Participation Africa (CAPPA), a no-governmental organization has embarked on examining the role of corporations in the global search to make water available to all.
In a special book publication titled Big Debts, Big Thirst: A Case Study of World Bank Supported Water Projects in Ekiti, Rivers and Bauchi States, CAPPA deploying its research skills across three states of the country examines the implications of privatisation reforms as advocated by international financial institutions led by the World Bank. Putting all the loans under critical review and examination is what has resulted in this publication.
It reveals a disturbing pattern showing systemic failures and compromises that lead to poor water access for millions of citizens for whom the loans were supposedly given by international financial institutions. The tone for the examination of these failures was set by Daniel Oberko, the Regional Secretary for Africa and Arab Countries Public Services International in the Foreword in which he observes, “With a population of over 250 million, Nigeria experiences water insecurity, which is caused by accessibility challenges, inadequate finance, and an institutional framework for administration that is neither consistent or coherent. This is made worst by policy directions influenced by market-oriented solutions and external funds aimed at enriching private companies at the expense of communities’ access to reasonably priced and clean drinking water.”
The Introduction takes a look at the importance of water in human life and how despite the fact that majority of the earth is covered by water, only a fraction of that is fit for human consumption and as such must be preserved and made accessible to all.
The first chapter takes a broad look at the country’s water sector and tries to also examine the efficiency of water governance, institutional and policy framework as obtained at the three (federal, state and local) levels of government across the country. It examines how the three connects and are supposed to work together to achieve effective access to fresh water by the citizens.
In the chapter on history of the World Bank intervention in the country’s water sector. It reveals that the Bank’s initial efforts were concentrated in the urban areas such as Kano, Lagos, Ibadan where projects were embarked upon in the funding of new water treatment plants. Some of these policies failed and the Bank had to arm twist governments to “enforce strict payment mechanism, and introduce water tariff increases to ensure financial sustainability” (p16).
Turning its focus on the three states of Bauchi, Ekiti and Rivers, the CAPPA team finds out that despite the humongous loans from the World Bank and other financial institutions, water facilities and supply across the states have not improved at all.
“In 2014, a third phase, NUWSRP3, was approved with an International Development Association (IDA) credit for 161.6 million Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), equivalent to a US$250 million loan provided to the Federal Government of Nigeria. This phase focused on substantial investments in the water sectors of Ekiti, Rivers and Bauchi States, with a core objective of enhancing the efficiency of state water corporations.” (p5) However, these were largely not the case. For instance, in Bauchi it was discovered that, “The state continues to face persistent water and sanitation challenges. Issues such as inadequate access to clean water, widespread open defecation and poor hygiene practices remain prevalent.” (p23).
The situation in Ekiti State is not much different despite the fact that it has “17 booster stations to enhance pressure and ensure efficient supply across various locations,” but only four of these are working! The Rivers State’s case is a classical demonstration of the Ancient Mariner’s chant of “Water, water everywhere but none to drink”! A state that derived its name from the fact that it is nestled among waters cannot find potable water to drink. In this state, the African Development Bank (AfDB) under its Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Project and World Bank’s NUWSRP3 failed to ameliorate the situation due to lack of adequate coordination.
In all, what the study has documented in this slim volume is the fact that attempts by governments to handover water access to corporations are dogged by pitfalls and insincerity which would make water costly and out of the rich of the common citizens. Making water corporations to be billed by power companies as if water is a raw material rather than treat access to it as a human rights issue would make it expensive. It was found out that the involvement of corporations has not in any way solved the core problems of water supply in the country.
The good thing about this study is that it is not all about listing the pitfalls. It offers alternatives that could be explored by various governments to ensure adequate supply of water to the populace. Some of these are that the government must reject privatization, proclaim a declaration of a national emergency in the water sector and the launch of sustainable water sector renewal plan, the recognition of water as a human rights issue as well as public investment in water infrastructure.
There is no doubt that the quartet of Sefa Ikpa, Gideon Adeyeni, Martin Ogunlade and Zikora Ibe have done a very quality work in aid of public water supply in this report. It is a document that all governments at various levels would find useful in assessing their efforts and investments in the water sector with the hope that they are going to act promptly on it before it’s too late.
Publisher: Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA)
Year of publication: 2025
