Keep Your Promise on Halting Water Privatisation, Group Urges Ambode

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has urged the Lagos State governor-elect, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to live up his electoral promises when he assumes office, particularly the immediate reversal of the planned privatisation of water in Lagos.
In a statement issued in Lagos, ERA/FoEN said the emergence of Ambode is the manifestation of the wishes of the electorate who cast their votes in the hope that the governor-elect will sustain the enviable pace of development the state has enjoyed in the last 16 years of democratic rule.
ERA/FoEN Director, Corporate Accountability and Administration, Akinbode Oluwafemi said: “We join Lagos residents in congratulating Ambode for the mandate he has received to steer the affairs of the state for the next four years. We urge him at this point to rally all critical stakeholders to implement policies that will not only alleviate the sufferings of the people but also improve the revenue base of the state.”
Oluwafemi said that it was pertinent at this point to remind the governor-elect of his electoral promise while hosting critical stakeholders including workers in the water unions that he will not add to the burden of Lagosians through water privatisation.
“While we trust the governor-elect to push through in halting privatisation under the failed Public Private Partnership (PPP) model, we are deeply worried that the Lagos State Water Corporation (LSWC), with the support of the World Bank, is still pushing very hard for privatisation of water which will disenfranchise millions of Lagos residents.”