UN, ERA/FoEN kick against Lagos environmental bill, tell Ambode not to sign

The United Nations expert on the human rights to water and sanitation and Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA FoEN) have raised serious concerns about a recent Bill in Lagos state which criminalises sinking of boreholes, and imposes fines and sets prison terms for any Lagos citizen that sells or transports water, among others.

The Special Rapporteur on the human rights to water and sanitation, Léo Heller, says: “When the State fails to provide adequate access to drinking water, no one should be criminalized or fined for fetching water from lakes, rivers, or any other natural sources.”

The Deputy Executive Director of ERA/FoEN, Akinbode Oluwafemi, the law is a conspiracy against the people.

“We believe the added pressure which the crafters of this law impose on Lagos citizens could be the guise of introducing Public Private Partnership (PPP) in the water sector which Lagosians have roundly condemned.

Lagosian have rejected PPP in the water sector through civil disobedience, public marches, using the instrumentality of the media. We are again rejecting the push towards PPP through the back door as this law portends.”

Recall that on the 20th of February, the Lagos State House of Assembly passed the Lagos Environment Bill called “A Bill for a Law to Consolidate all Laws Relating to the Environment for the Management, Protection and Sustainable Development of the Environment in Lagos State and for Connected Purposes”.

The new bill is nothing but a clandestine maneuver to unleash extreme capitalism, business without morals, and politics without values in Lagos state. It is draconian, obnoxious and anti-people, said Oluwafemi.

He said, “Solving the Lagos water crisis is not rocket science. It is not aliens from space that will solve deliberate hurdles strewn in the way of an efficient water sector that is possible.

We again reiterate that corruption, mismanagement of billions of dollars in donor funding, deliberate starving of the water sector needed funding are the causes of where we find ourselves today. However, PPP is not the solution

“The Our Water Our Right Coalition which is made up of civil society, grassroots campaigners, women groups and community voices has already recommended the solution to the challenges to accessing water in Lagos in a document titled: “Lagos Water Crisis: Alternative Roadmap for the Water Sector” launched October 2016.”

No doubt some giant strides have been recorded by the Ambode Administration, but we should not be afraid to tell them that this time they are wrong.

We are asking Governor Akinwunmi Ambode not to assent to this obnoxious bill but rather, send it back to the House to throw it open again for wider consultations and inputs from Lagos citizens.

Also speaking, Deputy chairman of Joint Action Front (JAF), Achike Chude said that the primary responsibility of the government is the people’s welfare, as there be alternative to other resources but there is none to water.

“Why should government subject Nigerians to all manner of hardship and difficulties, we know how important water is to human health”, he said.