Nigeria’s water crisis runs deeper than scarcity, threatening public health, food security and livelihoods as communities battle pollution, unsafe wells and failing infrastructure. 

For many Nigerian communities, the water crisis is no longer only about finding a river, drilling a borehole or waiting for rain. It is also about whether the water is safe, whether electricity can bring it to the surface, and whether the infrastructure will still work years after commissioning.

These concerns dominated Stories of a Broken Water Cycle, the inaugural session of Lokoja Dialogues held last weekend in Lagos.

Founder and Convenor of Lokoja Dialogues, Polly Alakija, said no community can escape the effects of a damaged water cycle, regardless of how well it managed its reserves. “No matter how brilliantly you manage your own reserves, whether it’s upstream, up above or down below, if the water cycle is out of kilter, it’s going to affect you too.”

She explained that Lokoja Dialogues was established to connect communities facing water problems with policymakers, investors and technical experts who could provide lasting solutions.

According to her, water, energy, food and ecosystems are connected. When one fails, the effects spread across health, livelihoods and the wider economy.

Alakija said communities must help define their problems before solutions are designed.

She said, “For us, community participation is a part of the evidence required to design services people need, use and can help sustain. It is the foundation on which our policy think tank is built.”

In one northern community visited by the organisation, damaged ecosystems and declining soil quality had weakened livelihoods. Rice production brought some relief, but dependence on one crop left residents vulnerable.

Although groundwater was available, there was no reliable electricity to bring it to the surface. “No power means no water means no livelihoods.”

In the Hadejia-Nguru wetlands, declining water resources had affected farming and fishing. The railway that once carried produce to markets had also stopped functioning. Many men left the community to fish elsewhere, leaving their families behind.

Alakija said women in the community told the organisation, “We are not even widows. We are abandoned.”

The search for water has also become dangerous in parts of the Northeast. Young people dig wells more than 20 metres deep, with food and air lowered to them while they work underground.  Alakija said residents told the organisation, “We are losing our children to these wells.

In Warri and Bayelsa, polluted rivers, creeks and soil have placed livelihoods at risk. Tidal changes have also disrupted daily life, while residents fear that even harvested rainwater may be polluted. “Each community has its own story, but across the board, there are commonalities. All communities want to see ancestral land and ecosystems restored.”

She added that Lokoja Dialogues had encountered poorly managed dams, waterworks and distribution systems. In many communities, the infrastructure existed but no longer supplied water.

Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof Akin Abayomi, said unsafe water must be treated as a serious public health issue. “Water security is fundamental to human survival and to planetary health.”

He explained that human health depends on the condition of the environment and its water sources. Polluted water, he said, would eventually affect the people and animals that depend on it.

Abayomi called for greater efforts to protect available water, preserve its quality and restore depleted sources. “Government on its own cannot solve the problem. Water needs to be a bankable project. It needs to be a sustainable project.”

According to him, supplying water to a megacity such as Lagos requires funding for construction, operation and maintenance. He said the state government is working with private partners to improve water supply.

Executive Director of The Tourist Company of Nigeria Plc, Anita Ibru, linked access to clean water with freedom and human dignity. Ibru urged leaders and investors to remember communities where finding safe water remained a daily struggle.

She said, “At its simplest, independence means freedom, the freedom to achieve and the freedom from parts of life that hold people back. But independence is not equally shared.”

Ibru described water as essential to human survival and called for collaboration among businesses, government institutions and social-impact organisations. She said, “Water is life.”

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), Aminu Umar-Sadiq, said solving the crisis would require long-term investment.

He said the NSIA viewed water through its links with electricity, agriculture, healthcare and environmental sustainability. Umar-Sadiq described hydropower as an important source of electricity but said such projects required huge capital and technical expertise.

“Raising capital from commercial banks simply doesn’t work. Raising capital from private equity funds for hydropower projects simply doesn’t work.” 

According to him, major infrastructure projects require patient, long-term funding. He said the NSIA established InfraCredit to help infrastructure companies attract investment from pension funds. He added that the authority would consider investing in suitable water projects developed through Lokoja Dialogues if they met its requirements.

Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Lokoja Dialogues, Olu Adeosun, warned that boreholes could create new dangers when poorly constructed. “Boreholes have a problem, particularly in floodplains. You build it wrong, then it’s prone to contamination from flood water.”

He said boreholes must be properly sealed, protected and maintained to keep the water safe. For Adeosun, the success of a water project should be measured by whether it continues to serve the community, not by the ceremony held when it is commissioned.

He also expressed concern that Nigeria was using only a small part of its irrigation potential despite its extensive water resources. “Just because you’re born close to water does not mean you are born with an innate sense of how to manage it properly and actually have it become something that is not just providing life, but is also providing means.”

Stakeholders at the dialogue agreed that drilling more boreholes would not solve Nigeria’s water crisis if the water remained unsafe, electricity was unavailable, and maintenance was neglected. They called for water systems that would remain safe and functional long after commissioning.