The Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service, Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE) and a coalition of water justice groups have criticised political parties campaigning for the 2027 elections for offering no clear plan to guarantee universal access to water for Nigerians.
The groups also asked the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to explain why ordinary Nigerians have not felt the impact of the potable water promise in its Renewed Hope Manifesto for the 2023 election.
According to the groups, the manifesto set a goal that by the end of the decade no citizen would live more than five minutes from a clean water source.
They spoke after a meeting in Abuja with the new national executives of AUPCTRE, led by the union’s National President, Comrade Eugene Manji.
The groups said it was worrying that political parties and politicians setting out their plans for office made almost no mention of access to water. They said this showed the parties did not see water as a priority.
The groups said current global metrics put clean water access in Nigeria at about 29.90 per cent instead of showing progress. They added that institutional fragmentation at the state and federal levels continued to stall progress in the water sector.
They said their concerns about the poor state of water utilities had also been captured in a 2025 report titled Dry Taps, which covered Oyo, Lagos, Kogi, Enugu, Edo and Kano states. According to the groups, the report showed how federal and state governments had neglected water utilities, which now operate far below capacity and force most Nigerians to depend on unwholesome and expensive alternatives.
Manji said, “It would seem access to water is not a priority by the current government and those haggling for political office in the next dispensation. As we speak, millions of Nigerians are forced to either source water from unwholesome sources or for those who can afford it, they pay through their noses for commodified water.
“This anomaly continues to expose Nigerians to water borne diseases for the poor and for the rich, different toxic chemicals that are not meant for the body.”
The Executive Director of the Citizens Free Service Forum (CFSF), Comrade Sani Baba, said the ruling party and those seeking to replace it could not ignore the groups’ concerns.
“Our observations are valid and cannot be ignored by the ruling party and those who intend to take over leadership from them. None of them have disclose any meaningful plan to address the nation’s water crisis,” he said.
“Nigerians must not take any party that has no clear agenda to address the water crisis serious. In fact, it will no longer be business as usual. The litmus test for us to listen to them is for them to disclose their plans to guarantee universal access.”
The Executive Director of the Renevlyn Development Initiative (RDI), Philip Jakpor, said, “The United Nations has said it and we agree with them that water underpins food, energy, health and even climate resilience and yes, it must be treated as the driver of economic opportunity. It is totally unacceptable that in the manifesto of the political parties every other matter takes precedence over this finite resource.”
The groups resolved to press the political parties for commitments. They also restated their opposition to private sector takeover of state water corporations built with public funds, including the public private partnership (PPP) model of water privatisation that they said the Lagos State Government was aggressively pushing.
Instead, they urged the parties to consider the Public Public Partnership (PuP) model, under which two or more public and non profit organisations cooperate to provide public services, build infrastructure or share technical expertise.
The groups also called for decent workplaces with adequate welfare and fair wages, which they said would help workers cope with economic hardship they blamed on the policies of the current administration.
Other groups at the meeting were the Ecumenical Water Network (EWN) Africa, the Child Health Organisation (CHO), the Environmental Defenders Network (EDEN) and the New Life Community Care Initiative (NELCCI).
