Effects of Government Negligence

There have been weak efforts made by the government to attempt to resolve this issue, none of which were successful. Water use regulations were put in place, but not enforced, government agencies were created for the sole purpose of maintaining the public water supply, but these agencies were not funded. While it may seem like the Lagos government has done its best with the funds they have, this is not the case. Instead of looking at the root causes of the issue, they have just found the cheapest and easiest solutions, which were not effective. Choosing to neglect the causes of the water crisis and allowing many citizens to suffer is an act of infrastructural violence. Infrastructural violence can be defined as how decisions about infrastructure design and investment can have a negative impact on groups of people. When the Lagos government neglects the inadequate infrastructure put in place, it causes residents of Lagos to suffer from a lack of water. This is a prime example of how infrastructural violence works; overtime these infrastructural faults will harm the population. If the government continues to ignore the serious faults of the existing infrastructure, as well as the high level of polluted water, more residents will become ill or die, and the act of infrastructural violence will become more severe. 

“If you look at the Lagos State fiscal budget from about 2019 to 2023, you would see that the Lagos State government has not allocated more than one percent of its fiscal budget to the Lagos State Water Corporation. In fact, in 2023, the LWC was allocated less than 0. 5 per cent.” (Ipka, Lukman 2024).

Lukman Olabiyi, a resident of Lagos, interviewed Sefa Ipka, the programme officer of Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa, who pointed out that how the Lagos government has not put enough attention or effort into the water corporation, along with the crisis itself. Even if the government has insufficient funds, it should be allocating more money to the Water agencies instead of spending money to expand the city, which is already overpopulated. 

Low-Income vs High Income Population 

After analyzing the Lagos Water Supply Master Plan, it is obvious that the primary concern is making a profit by directing most of the investments to the high-income population of Lagos. It is not uncommon for government agencies to prioritize the rich population, but due to the fact that Lagos is a poor country, the majority of the population is poor as well. The government has proved through its funding that it only cares about the profits it can make out of the water shortage, rather than actually attempting to resolve the issue. Not only is the government neglecting to fund poor neighborhoods, but they are also neglecting the extreme sanitation issue in the lower-income neighborhoods. Many citizens are becoming fatally ill and dying due to the unsanitary environments they are forced to live in. In these areas, the only accessible water is contaminated with heavy metals, so waterborne illnesses are prevalent. Poor populations can not afford to buy water from borehole owners or water sellers, and many people can not withstand walking across the country to retrieve clean water. Activist groups have protested in attempts to bring awareness to the uninhabitable environment they are forced to live in, but these groups have been shut down and mistreated by government officials. The government needs to tend to the lower-income communities, especially if they are expanding the city. If they do not do so, the city will expand,  the poor communities will become larger, and more people will be affected by the unsanitary conditions and lack of drinkable water. 

Poor Planning and Management 

One of the main reasons that the infrastructure has not been addressed by the government is their lack of proper planning. They expanded the Iju waterworks rapidly, adding 2 more major waterworks and 30 mini ones. They continued to expand even when the effectiveness of the waterworks began to decline. When the government added water corporations, they added multiple for different aspects, for example: there is an agency focused on water quality, another for water supply, and another for drought management. Overall there are 15 different agencies, all of them working independently. This caused chaos because none of these agencies communicated, and they were also given 15 separate master plans. These agencies are uncoordinated, therefore their work is ineffective. Not only are these agencies uncoordinated, but they contradict each other as well. The agency responsible for water quality has stated that residents are not allowed to have septic tanks, but the agency responsible for waste management allows residents to have septic tanks. Lack of coordination and proper planning makes the water supply crisis even worse because the government has 15 different agencies all trying to resolve the issue independently while not communicating at all. If these agencies are condensed into 2 or 3 and properly communicate, they may be able to work together to improve the water quality and supply. The Lagos government needs to rework their master plan so it is clear and concise, and make sure all agencies are aware of the plan. These agencies also need to work together instead of as independent groups, as well as communicate with each other about their implemented policies, so all agencies can reinforce the same things.