FG should take over management of state water boards – Ezeji

Greetings, Mr. Babalobi.

I read this interview with mixed feelings concerning the accuracy of the Nigerian professionals’ judgments about the WASH sector, particularly the failure of water utilities in Nigeria. My comments therefore is not about this interview but general.
So my worry is, what is the major motivation that will ensure effective management of WASH services at the state level?

The country is abundantly blessed with resources especially ground water. As you are aware,ground water is poorly regulated in Nigeria unlike other parts of the world, so are the SWAs.
The organizational/institutional structure of state governments is comparable to that of the federal government.
The organizational ethos is no different.

As a recent administrator in the sector, I believe that practitioners’ thinking regarding sector diagnosis should be adjusted to reflect the Nigerian context.
In view of the aforementioned, I would like to suggest that the motivation for achieving quality WASH services in Nigeria should be identified in system wide approach and stakeholders roles that are enforceable put in place to achieving the motivation.
My thoughts as a novice.

It will be very interesting, jubilation will be all over the city as we will stop buying water from water vendors.
Thanks for this important information. let me read the story

it just makes no sense that we cannot get the Urban WASH Utilities to work.

The federal government already has too much to bite. State governments should prioritize provision of water and allow professionals to manage the agencies. Home grown solutions to provision & maintenance of WASH facilities (similar to what you did in Ekiti) should be encouraged and developed. Corrupt officials should be strictly sanctioned while excellence should be rewarded.

Thank you Dr. Babalobi for including me in your mailing list for such an important discussion. They help a great deal in making me updated on current issues related to WASH. So, I thank you.
With regards to the interview with Dr. Ezeji which I find very interesting and educative in parts also.
Dr. Ezeji made some interesting remarks like the call for the federal government to take over the management of the State Water Boards. I find it very interesting. See Dr. Babalobi, I have spent over two decades in the sector and have interacted with actors in the industry over the period at various levels. The Federal Government will not do anything different from what is presently ongoing. I agree that capacity is at the center of the problem. But does the FG have something different except a larger purse of fund to paper the problems and that is being blown open now that the FG is now broke.
There is a dearth of knowledge to manage these agencies in the most organized, orderly, and expanded technically, geographically, and sustainably in terms of service regeneration and environment. Or let me rather make it mild that the dearth is the know-how to sorting out the overwhelming chaos in the large service supply arrangements of some states (Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, etc. being typical examples). Some states do not have this bogus geographical supply coverage but still have sustainability issues. For those ones, capacity is the issue. I have traveled to some of these states and would not want to mention them except to you personally and a common denominator exist in corruption as a big factor too.
He also made a good point in the conclusion of this point about some semblance of good governance at the Federal level compared to the state where everyone is gagged and cannot voice out contrary opinions.
On the issue of prepayment meters, I respected Dr. Ezeji’s comments but defer in the sense that the so-called poor will need some advocacy and education in the management of water usage will prepayment meters will offer, however, tariff policies could be used to ensure no one is left out.
My rejoinder to this interview.
Thank you Sir, for the opportunity

Urban water supply sector has not performed well under the state government controls but they are not likely to do better under federal government control because the services that are under the federal control are not doing better take for example the petroleum industry and the security sector. I think the way forward is to gradually handover the WASH sector to private operators. On the issue of metering, prepaid meters discourage water wastage and conserved water to reach the poor. It provides for the poor through multiple tariff settings that allows you to set lower rates for poor neighborhoods.

I do not really agree with him. It is the Federal Govt that got the State Water Boards and Corporations into the mess they are. The whole decay started with the National Water Rehabilitation Projects and went on with the National Urban Water Sector Reform Projects. All these interventions have not amounted to anything. I remember in those old days of the Western State Water Corporation and subsequently the Water Corporation of Oyo State, Lagos State Water Corporation and others like them, the corporations were well funded, well run, with well trained manpower. But no sooner than the integrated water resources management and the federally sponsored projects came into being, the water boards went down the drain. The Federal government has not been able to handle most of what they have taken over. Rather they have messed them up. There has been a lot of waste and nothing to show for it. All the World Bank loans, grants and aids facilitated by the Federal government are all money down the drain and have not solved any problem. Rather all the state water boards are under performing despite the huge investments on them. The utilities are too top heavy, no fresh recruitments and as such the knowledge gap is low. Technical and management capacities and capabilities are low and funding of O & M is not there. I believe we need to find a way to get the Water Boards to function rather than transferring the problems to the national level, which will be too big and will not be able to serve the people. The day Federal Govt started midwifing funding of infrastructure development in the States marked the death kernel of the Water Boards in Nigeria.