Lagos State Water Courts illegal, unacceptable -ERA/FoEN

Akinwunmi Ambode, Lagos State Governor

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has described Lagos State government’s establishment of special courts to prosecute individuals it ascribed to as illegal water service providers as a cover for promoting water privatization.

ERA/FoEN’s position is coming on the heels of media reports which indicated that Dr. Babatunde Adejare, Lagos’ Commissioner for Environment, announced the introduction of the courts at a two-day retreat organised for officials of the water sector which had as theme: Towards Achieving A Safe And Sustainable Water Sector In Lagos State.

Adejare who was represented by Babatunde Hunpe, Special Adviser to the Governor on the Environment, dismissed reports that the state planned to privatize water but surprisingly added that a ‘public-private partnership’ is necessary. He also said the state government is not pleased with giving bailouts to the Lagos State Water Corporation (LSWC) because of no-payment of water bills by water consumers.

But in a statement issued in Lagos, ERA/FoEN said the establishment of the water courts is an “unacceptable” violation of the rights of Lagos citizens to water and has no legal backing anywhere in Nigeria.

ERA/FoEN Deputy Executive Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi, said: “We find this development totally absurd. Criminalizing the right of people to source for water when government has consistently failed to live up to its responsibility is simply scapegoating and passing the buck. There is no edict existing or in the works that allows any state government to set up a court for punishing anyone who has decided to provide water to his neighbor free.

“In the layman’s understanding, what this means is that anybody in our communities that carries a jerry-can of water from one house to the other is going to be accused of violating the law and sent to jail. This is absolutely disturbing.”

Oluwafemi frowned at references to already budgeted and appropriated funds to the LSWC as bailout, insisting that Adejare’s description of appropriated funds as rescue connotes that the state government has converted the Corporation into a private enterprise whose statutory due in the state budget is now called bail-out.

The ERA/FoEN boss pointed out that it is offensive that the Lagos State government is using its resources to establish a "special court," round up people attempting to provide people with an essential human need, and prosecute them, even as he added that Lagosians are not the problem that need to be solved.

“The proper move for the state government would be to require invest financial resources in strengthening the public water system so more people have access to water. After all, of what use is government if it is not protecting basic human rights, like water? What Adejare calls an undesirable ‘bailout’ is in fact the proper role and responsibility of government.”

He stressed that the Our Water, Our Right Campaigners who have staged various protests across the state to reject water privatization reject the water courts and still remain resolute in rejecting all forms of water privatization, semi-water privatization or so called Public Private Partnerships.

“What Lagos residents have consistently asked for and will not negotiate is informed and active participation in developing plans to achieve universal access to clean water. The solution remains within the realm of public control. We are unequivocal that the so-called water courts are a gross violation of our right to life,” he insisted.