Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa, CAPPA has warned the Lagos State Government against plans to concession parts of the state’s public water infrastructure and expand prepaid water metering, saying the measures could worsen access to safe and affordable water, particularly for low-income residents.
The warning followed the state’s signing of a one-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China Harbour Engineering Company, CHEC and Naston Engineering Nigeria Limited to scope components of a proposed water infrastructure programme within the Lekki Concession Area.
Under the proposed arrangement, the first phase will involve the installation of a transmission pipeline beneath the Lagos Lagoon into the Lekki Concession Area, while the second phase will cover downstream distribution, including metering and last-mile connections.
CAPPA said the engagement could eventually lead to a concession agreement that gives private companies significant influence over water distribution, tariffs, metering and household access.
The organisation criticised what it described as a lack of transparency surrounding the agreement, saying the MoU, terms of reference and records of consultations with affected communities had not been made publicly available.
“There is no publicly accessible record showing the project’s full scope, how the consortium was selected, what obligations the companies have assumed, or how residents have participated in its development,” CAPPA said.
The organisation argued that beyond transparency concerns, transferring control of an essential public service to private operators could prioritise commercial profitability over universal access.
CAPPA’s Water Program Officer, Holiness Segun-Olufemi, said Lagos State had the resources and responsibility to invest in and rebuild its public water system rather than use longstanding infrastructure challenges as justification for private control.
“The problem is that successive administrations have failed to fund, maintain, and expand the system at the scale Lagos requires. Allowing a public institution to deteriorate and then presenting private control as its rescue is dishonest. It is an abdication of responsibility,” he said.
CAPPA also raised concerns over the proposed expansion of prepaid water meters, arguing that the system could automatically cut off supply when purchased credit is exhausted and leave vulnerable households without access to water during periods of financial hardship.
“For a resource essential to human life, sanitation, and public health, automated disconnections are fundamentally exclusionary and set to worsen the lives of vulnerable groups and low-income earners,” Segun-Olufemi said.
The organisation compared the proposed water-sector model with Nigeria’s experience of electricity privatisation, where consumers continue to contend with tariff increases, prepaid-meter shortages, estimated billing and unreliable supply despite years of private-sector participation.
CAPPA warned that a similar model in the water sector could see public funds used to develop infrastructure while private operators control billing and revenue, potentially resulting in higher tariffs and advance payments without guaranteed reliable supply.
It cited experiences in Akilo and Baruwa areas of Lagos, where it said residents had reported intermittent water supply, delays in activating purchased units, low pressure and discrepancies between paid and received volumes following the introduction of prepaid meters.
According to the organisation, some households in Baruwa reported spending up to N60,000 monthly on water, alongside complaints of disappearing purchased units, prolonged outages, dirty water when supply resumed and inadequate complaint mechanisms.
CAPPA maintained that water should be treated as a public good and human right, with decisions on its production, distribution and financing driven primarily by public need.
It therefore called on the Lagos State Government to halt further steps towards concessioning public water infrastructure and suspend the expansion of prepaid metering.
The organisation also demanded the full publication of the CHEC-Naston MoU and called for a publicly financed rehabilitation plan covering treatment plants, pipelines, reservoirs and distribution networks, with a guaranteed basic quantity of water for every household.
CAPPA further urged communities, labour unions, students, journalists, civil society organisations and residents to hold government accountable for providing basic water services.
The organisation stressed that Lagos requires substantial investment in water infrastructure but argued that such investment should strengthen the Lagos Water Corporation, expand public capacity and guarantee universal access rather than create avenues for private profit from an essential service.