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Why the legislation was hurriedly signed

by Jude Njoku
Copyright The Vanguard
Monday, November 29, 2004

Strong opposition has been mounted by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other stakeholders against the recent law enacted by the Lagos State government unbundling the State Water Corporation into six subsidiaries and stipulating stiff penalties to those who infringe on the provisions of the Act.

This is coming even as facts emerged last week that the bill which was neither subjected to public hearing nor passed through the third reading in the State House of Assembly, was hurriedly signed into law by Governor Bola Tinubu as a condition for securing a $100 million loan facility from the World Bank.

Surprising, the hardest knock is coming from the State Ministry of Environment which supervises environmental sanitation and water resources in the State.

A top official of the Ministry told Vanguard Property & Environment that the ministry was jolted to read about the new law on the pages of a national daily. According to him, the State government had prior to submitting the draft bill to the State House of Assembly, written to the ministries to inform them of the new law. The letter was allegedly dated July 18, 2004. "We made our proposals in which we raised some pertinent questions like what becomes of the sewage services in the state. We also stated that a corporation cannot be superior to the supervising ministry. But before we knew what was happening, the next thing we read was that the law has become effective", he said.

The source alleged that even the management of the Lagos State Water Corporation was not in the picture of what transpired until the law was foisted on them.

Meanwhile, a non governmental group, Bread of Life Development Foundation has threatened to take the government to court over the new water act, alleging that it was wrongly signed into law by the governor because due process was not followed.

Mr Babatope Babalobi from the foundation told a roundtable conference on water organized by Country Water Partnership Nigeria, an affiliate of Global Water Partnership that new water act is totally unacceptable to the civil society. According to him, the bill was read for the second time in the state legislature on July 20 and before any public debate or going through a second reading, it was accented to by Governor Tinubu on July 29.

Mr Babalobi who claimed that the interest of water users in Lagos was not taken into consideration stated that most provisions of the new law make it anti-integrated water resources management being canvassed by the global agency.

Noting that access to water is still a basic human right, he wondered why the law did not make provision for dual pricing of water.

The new law does not take the interest of the less privileged into consideration. Under the law, the government can even go ahead and disconnect primary schools for failing to pay water bills. The law also created six subsidiaries but was silent on their powers.

We may challenge the act in court because the process of its passage into law and the contents are against the provisions of existing laws", he said.

Apart from breaking up the State Water Corporation into six subsidiaries and reeling out heavy fines for individual and corporate offenders, the new law also sets out fresh regulatory guidelines for operators in the sector, part of which will be undertaken by the private sector.

The law which is divided into five parts focuses on the setting up of a Governing Board for the Lagos State Water Corporation, the establishment of a regulatory commission and State Water Court.

Others issues include those dealing with water and sewerage services, water quality standards and the environment.

The contentious legislation gives overriding supervision of the sector to a commission which will oversee the corporation and its governing board. The Commission will comprise eight members to be headed by a Group Managing Director. The six subsidiaries carved out by the law are: LSWC Water Utilities Ltd, LSWC Property and General Services Company Ltd, LSWC Information Technology and Telecommunications Company Ltd, LSWC Training and Technical Research Centre Ltd and LSWC Power Generation Ltd.

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