Tuesday, 19th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

Again, AUPCTRE, PSI, others reject water bill

By Clarkson Voke Eberu
30 September 2022   |   4:04 am
The Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE) and its civil society counterparts, Public Service International (PSI) and Corporate Accountability..

[FILES] Tap water. PHOTO: Getty Images

Gov performing, addressing critical issues, aide counters

The Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE) and its civil society counterparts, Public Service International (PSI) and Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), have, again, rejected the National Water Resources Bill before the National Assembly.

It also berated Lagos State Government for its alleged failure to provide clean, potable, accessible and affordable water to residents, charging Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to do everything within his powers to ensure availability of drinking water.

The groups made the assertions at the sixth quadrennial state delegates’ conference of AUPCTRE, held in Lagos.

In her welcome address, representative of PSI, Abiodun Badru, said that the revenues being generated in Lagos State were more than enough to provide safe public water and other critical infrastructure for residents.

Insisting that the state government has no justifiable reasons to privatise the product since water is life, she maintained that the Sanwo-Olu administration should place the people’s welfare over the quest to make profits.
BUT responding, Special Adviser to the Governor on Labour Matters, William Babatunde, said it was unfair to claim that the governor had failed in the water sector, adding that rather than criticise the state government, people should commend and encourage the governor to do more, not only in the water sector, but also in other critical sectors.

“There is no basis to compare Lagos with Ekiti State on any matter. The challenges and crisis in the Lagos State public water sector are being addressed and as such, it is unfair to say that Governor Sanwo-Olu has failed or is not doing enough in the water sector,” he said.

Director of Programmes at CAPPA, Philip Jakpor, urged the leadership and membership of AUPCTRE at the state and national levels to engage more to discourage privatisation of water in Lagos.

He claimed that there was a deliberate attempt to stifle Lagos waterworks to pave way for Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) aimed at placing provision of water in the hands of a few individuals.

On his part, National Secretary of AUPCTRE, Sikiru Waheed, blamed the state government for its failure to revive the comatose waterworks, adding that the “visible neglect of public waters in Lagos was very bad for the state, especially for residents, whose terrains could not allow drilling of boreholes and even wells.”

He alleged that the Lagos Water Corporation was operating at a mere 20 per cent capacity, maintaining that as good as Governor Sanwo-Olu may have performed in other areas, “he has failed woefully in the public water sector, as most residents of the state lack potable water.”

Other delegates at the conference, including National President of AUPCTRE, Benjamin Anthony; Lagos State Chairman, Taiwo Opaleye and Secretary, ‘Biodun Bakare, opposed the National Water Resources Bill being pushed for the third time at the National Assembly and attempts by some state governments, particularly Lagos, to privatise water in their domains under the guise of PPPs.

In this article

0 Comments