CAPPA Warns Lagos Against Water Concession, Says Prepaid Meters Threaten Access

CAPPA Warns Lagos Against Water Concession, Says Prepaid Meters Threaten Access
…Group Demands Halt to CHEC-Naston Deal and Full Disclosure of MoU
By prince Benson Davies
Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa, CAPPA, has raised strong objections to the Lagos State Government’s plan to concession parts of the public water system and expand prepaid water metering. The organisation said the proposals will undermine equitable access and push essential water services beyond the reach of poor households.

CAPPA’s position follows the signing of a one-year Memorandum of Understanding between the Lagos State Government, China Harbour Engineering Company, CHEC, and Naston Engineering Nigeria Limited. The agreement covers a water infrastructure programme for the Lekki Concession Area.

Under the arrangement, phase one involves laying a transmission pipeline under the Lagos Lagoon to serve the Lekki area. Phase two focuses on downstream distribution, including metering and last-mile connections. Government officials say the MoU will produce a technical report and framework for a full concession agreement.

CAPPA described the MoU as the first step toward transferring control of water distribution, tariffs, and household connections to private firms. The group said it is alarmed by the absence of public information on the deal. According to CAPPA, no copy of the MoU, its terms of reference, or details of community consultations have been made public.

“There is no record showing how the consortium was selected, what obligations the companies have taken on, or how residents were involved,” CAPPA stated. “Yet the government is already talking about tariffs and concession terms while citizens are kept in the dark.”

The organisation argued that transparency alone cannot fix what it called a fundamentally flawed approach. It maintained that treating water as a commercial venture will always put profit ahead of universal access. Low-income communities, CAPPA warned, will be the first to be cut off when ability to pay becomes the basis for supply.

Holiness Segun-Olufemi, CAPPA’s Water Programme Officer, said successive administrations have allowed the Lagos Water Corporation to decline through underfunding and poor maintenance. She said presenting private takeover as the solution is misleading.
“The problem is failure to invest and expand the system to meet Lagos’ needs. Letting a public institution collapse and then handing it to private operators is an abdication of responsibility,” she said.

CAPPA also condemned plans to roll out prepaid water meters across the state. Unlike postpaid billing, prepaid meters cut off supply once credit is exhausted. The group said this model makes access to water dependent on upfront payment, even during job loss, illness, or other emergencies.

“For a resource tied to life, health and sanitation, automatic disconnection is exclusionary. It will hit vulnerable families and low-income earners hardest,” Segun-Olufemi added.

The organisation drew parallels with Nigeria’s electricity sector. More than 10 years after privatisation, consumers still face tariff hikes, estimated billing, meter shortages, and outages. CAPPA noted that the service-based tariff system has created consumer bands with different prices, yet many still do not get promised hours of supply. It said government continues to fund bailouts while households spend more on alternatives like generators and solar.

CAPPA warned Lagos is about to repeat the same pattern with water. Public funds will build infrastructure, private companies will control billing and revenue, tariffs will rise for cost recovery, and households will pay in advance with no guarantee of supply.

The group cited Akilo and Baruwa in Lagos where prepaid meters are already in use. Residents there reported irregular supply, delays in activating units, low pressure, missing purchased volumes, and bills as high as N60,000 monthly. In Baruwa, some households said they went weeks without water and received dirty supply when it returned, with no clear way to complain.

CAPPA insisted that water is a public good and a human right. It urged the state government to stop further moves toward concession and to suspend prepaid metering expansion.

It also demanded the immediate publication of the CHEC-Naston MoU and the release of a publicly funded plan to rehabilitate treatment plants, pipelines, reservoirs and distribution networks. The plan, CAPPA said, must guarantee a minimum quantity of water for every household.

The organisation called on communities, labor unions, students, journalists, and civil society to resist any attempt to commercialise water and to hold government accountable for providing basic services.

CAPPA warned that concession agreements can lock Lagos into decades-long contracts. It said what the state needs now is investment that strengthens public institutions, expands capacity, and ensures water for all, not a system designed to generate returns for investors.