By Abbas Nazil
The Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa, CAPPA, has strongly criticised the Lagos State Government following its recent admission that residents of the Lekki Peninsula may be consuming faecal-contaminated water from boreholes, describing the revelation as evidence of decades of failure in the state’s public water system.
The criticism came in reaction to a statement by Mahmood Adegbite, Permanent Secretary, Office of Drainage Services and Water Resources, who told a public gathering last week that residents were “probably drinking what I will call ‘shit water’” because of contamination in underground water sources.
In a statement issued yesterday, CAPPA said while Adegbite’s blunt remark drew attention, the real issue was the government’s unwillingness to take responsibility for the problem.
According to CAPPA’s Executive Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi, boreholes and dug wells in Lagos are not luxury options but survival measures for residents forced to provide their own water because public institutions have failed to meet this basic need.
The group noted that for decades, many communities across Lagos, including Lekki, have been left without safe and reliable public water supply, compelling them to depend on unsafe self-supplied sources.
It accused the government of mocking residents for drilling boreholes instead of tackling the root causes, which include chronic underinvestment in water infrastructure, poor wastewater management, untreated sewage, and ineffective sanitation systems.
Oluwafemi stressed that authorities could not abandon their constitutional duty for years and then criticise citizens for finding means to survive.
CAPPA also condemned the state’s repeated interest in privatisation models that prioritise profit over people, warning that such policies, which it described as discredited, should not be revived without broad public engagement.
The organisation called for urgent public investment in water and sanitation services, the suspension of all market-driven water reforms, and the adoption of a publicly managed, community-led governance system.
It also urged the Lagos State Government to implement an emergency plan that prioritises underserved areas, repairs failing wastewater systems, and incorporates climate-resilient water management strategies.
While recognising the need to regulate indiscriminate borehole drilling, CAPPA maintained that such regulation could only be successful if the government first provided viable public water alternatives.
The group insisted that Lagos residents are not to blame for consuming unsafe water but are victims of policy failure.
It emphasised that this failure should be acknowledged and corrected rather than used to justify anti-people reforms that further limit access to safe and affordable water.
