From Idu Jude, Abuja
The Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has condemned the Lagos State Government’s decision to privatise water supply through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) scheme, describing the process as anti-people and a betrayal of residents’ right to safe, affordable, and publicly managed water.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, August 20, 2025, CAPPA dismissed a two-day advocacy workshop convened last week by the Lagos Water Corporation (LWC) as a “sham public relations exercise.” The event, themed “Attracting Investment for Improved Water Supply in Lagos State through Public-Private Partnership,” featured pledges by members of the State House of Assembly to fast-track legal amendments to give investors broad protections. The state’s Office of Public-Private Partnerships described the plan as the “first concession” of water infrastructure, beginning with a pilot covering roughly 10 percent of assets.
CAPPA warned that such pronouncements reveal with chilling clarity that “water will no longer be recognised as a human right but will instead be reduced to a financial asset securitised for the comfort of investors.”
The organisation noted that Lagos’ fixation on water privatisation is part of a long-running pattern. “For more than a decade, successive administrations have sought to hand over essential services to corporate profiteers, shifting the burden of cost and access onto already overburdened residents,” the statement added.
Responding to LWC Managing Director Mukhtaar Tijani’s claim that CAPPA declined to attend the workshop by “deliberate choice” over procedural concerns, CAPPA described the remark as disingenuous. “Yes, we refused to rubber-stamp a fait accompli and for good reasons which we clearly articulated in our response to the LWC,” CAPPA stated. “What was presented as a stakeholder meeting took place only after the State had already issued Request for Proposals (RFP No. LSWC/BFOT/001/2025), inviting private investors to bid for the rehabilitation, upgrade, operation, and maintenance of mini and micro waterworks under a Build-Finance-Operate-Transfer (BFOT) PPP model.
“Genuine stakeholder engagement must precede, not follow, major policy and investment commitments. By inviting bids first before democratic consultation, the Lagos State Government has shown contempt for accountability and treated residents as afterthoughts.
“We therefore reject both the process and its underlying premise. The privatisation of Lagos water is a step in the wrong direction, and we refuse to legitimise a predetermined outcome that undermines public interest,” said Akinbode Oluwafemi, Executive Director of CAPPA.
CAPPA highlighted that this governance style is not new. On April 28, 2025, the Lagos State Ministry of Environment and Water Resources announced a Memorandum of Understanding with Belstar Capital, a US-based investment firm, and ENKA, a Turkish engineering company, to expand, rehabilitate, and construct water supply works across the state. No meaningful details on the scope of work, financing model, or contractual terms were shared, nor were feasibility studies, environmental impact assessments, or social safeguards provided.
Similarly, in June 2024, the Lagos State Government launched the Lagos Water Partnership (LWP), which CAPPA described as “another hollow platform presented as ‘consultative engagement.’” The statement noted that by the time LWP was unveiled, contracts had already been signed with the Resilient Water Accelerator (RWA). “Far from being a space for dialogue, the LWP was a tokenistic box-ticking exercise designed to launder decisions made elsewhere,” CAPPA said.
Following the Lagos International Water Conference (LIWAC) in June 2024, CAPPA had raised concerns about the state’s singular focus on PPPs with no room for alternatives. “Then, as now, we questioned why Lagos insists on pursuing a model that has failed everywhere it has been tried and the State’s blatant unwillingness to try other models that have proven successful,” CAPPA added.
CAPPA countered Tijani’s claim that PPP is not privatisation, explaining that privatisation includes concessions, leases, management contracts, and BFOT-type arrangements, precisely what Lagos is pursuing. Even when legal ownership remains with the state, operational control, tariffs, and workforce decisions are surrendered to private operators, prioritising profit. The mass sacking of over 800 LWC workers in 2023 was cited as evidence of this cut-throat model.
CAPPA debunked Tijani’s claims of PPP “success” in Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, Morocco, Egypt, and Malawi, citing evidence of failures. In Rwanda, the Kigali Bulk Water Supply Project has faced losses, corruption, and service disruptions, with nearly half of annual production lost and rationing in Kigali. In South Africa, the Mbombela concession has seen tariff hikes and disputes, while Morocco’s concessions in Casablanca, Rabat, Tangier, and Tétouan have faced billing controversies. Uganda’s improvements stemmed from public reforms, not privatisation, and in Malawi and Egypt, privatisation efforts collapsed or failed to materialise.
Globally, CAPPA noted failures in the UK, where privatised water companies raised bills by over 40% since 1989 while siphoning £85 billion to shareholders, leading to underinvestment and sewage spills. Cities like Paris, Berlin, Buenos Aires, and Jakarta have reversed privatisation due to higher costs, job losses, and degraded services.
As an alternative, CAPPA urged Lagos to follow the global trend of remunicipalisation, rebuilding in-house capacity and fostering participatory water sector reforms centring workers, communities, and households. The group demanded increased budgetary allocations to water infrastructure and exploration of public-public partnerships that treat water as a shared good, not a commodity.
CAPPA called on the Lagos State Government to halt the PPP scheme for mini and micro waterworks, withdraw RFP No. LSWC/BFOT/001/2025, disclose all agreements signed with private investors, and initiate an open dialogue on sustainable, publicly controlled solutions to the state’s water crisis.
