By Destiny Obinna
A coalition of more than 50 civil society organisations, labour unions and community groups has threatened coordinated mass resistance across Lagos State if the government attempts to seal residential boreholes or prosecute households for accessing groundwater.
The coalition, under the Our Water Our Right Africa Coalition (OWORAC), accused the Lagos State Government of attempting to criminalise the survival strategies of millions of residents despite decades of inadequate public water supply.
The warning follows a statement attributed to the Executive Secretary of the Lagos State Water Regulatory Commission (LASWARCO), Oluwabukola Adeyemo, cautioning that unauthorised borehole drilling and groundwater extraction could attract property sealing and criminal prosecution.
But the coalition insists that the government’s position ignores provisions of the Lagos State Environmental Management and Protection Law of 2017, which it says expressly exempts domestic boreholes from licensing requirements.
“By deliberately omitting these statutory exemptions from its public threats and threatening indiscriminate crackdowns, LASWARCO has overstepped its bounds, creating needless panic among already suffering residents,” the groups declared.
Citing Sections 253(1) and 259(2), the coalition maintained that the law distinguishes household water needs from commercial and industrial groundwater extraction.
The organisations demanded immediate clarification from LASWARCO, insisting that no household should face harassment, property sealing or prosecution for operating a domestic borehole covered by the statutory exemption.
The groups also questioned the rationale for enforcing restrictions on households when public water infrastructure remains grossly inadequate.
According to figures cited in their statement, the Lagos Water Corporation has only 34,424 registered connections, representing approximately 1.03 per cent direct coverage in a megacity of more than 20 million people.
“Public taps across the state have been dry for decades, while massive, multi-billion-naira waterworks at Iju, Adiyan and Ishasi rot away in an embarrassing state of operational underperformance,” the coalition said.
It accused the government of applying double standards by threatening ordinary households while allegedly maintaining lengthy regulatory engagements with multinational industrial water users.
“It is unconscionable that the state could spend years patiently negotiating with multinational corporations guzzling millions of litres for private profit, yet threaten task forces, property sealings, and criminal charges against ordinary citizens drawing water for their pots and buckets,” the groups stated.
The coalition rejected the privatisation of public water services and warned against policies that could force residents into captive prepaid water markets.
It urged the government to rehabilitate existing waterworks, expand public water infrastructure and direct regulatory enforcement towards high-volume commercial abstractors and industrial polluters.
Issuing a final warning, the coalition called on community associations, youth organisations, trade unions, artisans and market women to mobilise against any attempt to seal domestic boreholes.
“The state is formally put on notice that any attempt by LASWARCO or armed task forces to enter residential communities, demand illegal permits, or seal domestic boreholes will be treated as an unlawful provocation and met with immediate legal, public, and coordinated mass resistance across every community in Lagos.”
The statement was endorsed by 25 representatives of civil society organisations, labour unions, community associations and social movements, including the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa, Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre, Joint Action Front and Federation of Informal Workers Organisation of Nigeria.
