Organised labour and rights activists have urged the Lagos State government, other states of the federation and the Federal Government to provide safe, clean and affordable drinking water to Nigerians through the public sector.

The several achievements recorded by Lagos water campaign, spearheaded by the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA-FoEN) have been spotlighted in the 2019 edition of the Atlas of Utopias launched online Thursday, in Amsterdam. The cases show how public solutions based on principles of cooperation and solidarity rather than competition and private profit have been more successful in meeting people’s basic needs – and perhaps just as importantly in creating a spirit of confidence and empowerment that strengthen communities for many other challenges.

The 2019 Spotlight Report report dives more deeply into the (global) governance arrangements and institutions that will be necessary to implement alternative policies and to unleash the transformative potential of the SDGs. It offers analysis and recommendations on how to strengthen inclusive and participatory governance and to overcome obstacles and gaps in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs. In doing this, it poses a strong call to action to world leaders just in advance of the SDG Summit in September 2019.

The Atlas of Utopias is a global gallery of inspiring community-led transformation in water, energy, housing and food. It features 34 communities from 24 countries working on radical solutions to our world’s systemic economic, social and ecological crises.

The achievements recorded by Lagos water campaign, spearheaded by the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA-FoEN) have been spotlighted in the recently launched 2019 edition of the Atlas of Utopias. The Atlas, an initiative by Transformative Cities, is a unique collection of community-led transformations of water, energy, food and …

On World Public Service Day, PSI declares that the privatisation debate is not outdated. We oppose the ideology that hands our collective resources over to for-profit corporations and turns all people into mere consumers, devoid of rights.

The Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE) in Plateau State “has called on Governor Simon Bako Lalong to repeal the section of the Water Sector law that privatizes water supply in Jos and environs. (…) They stressed that privatisation of water would not only amount to betrayal of trust by the government of the state but would be immoral for the state government to subject the people to a dangerous experiment that has failed in other countries. Daily Trust reports that the union had, alongside Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria and CSOs, staged a protest on April 16 during a public hearing on the bill where they demanded that Article 3 subsection 1(p) of the bill that promotes public-private partnership be expunged.”

Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy “has deliberately sought to delay a bill aimed at ensuring Irish Water remains a public company, the Opposition has claimed.” Sinn Féin TD Eoin O Broin says “we are fed up with the delays, we want to proceed. Absolutely they are seeking to delay this. (…) Mr. Ó Broin expressed his anger with the further postponement of Committee Stage of the Water in Public Ownership Bill that was due to take place tomorrow. ‘The Committee Stage of Water in Public Ownership Bill has been delayed yet again at Minister Murphy’s request. This is clearly a delaying tactic by the government as it clearly does not want a referendum to ensure water services remain in public ownership,’ he said.”

Morena senator and upper house speaker Martí Batres says long term legislative measures are needed to prevent water privatization. “Batres said that although the current federal government will not privatize the resource, measures are needed to prevent future administrations from doing so. According to the lawmaker, commercial exploitation of water has happened without implementing legal reforms at the municipal or state level. Batres cited the water decrees former president Enrique Peña Nieto signed at the end of his term last year as ‘a little heritage of water basin privatizations.’”

The next phase of the federal government’s privatisation program will focus on ‘public private partnerships’ says Alex Okoh, the Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE). Among the first targets: housing. “The new phase targets reforms mostly in the utility and infrastructure sectors which include; water resources, railways airports and highways.” Okoh stated this “when he received a Word Bank delegation led by the Senior Economist (Economics and Private Sector Development), Mr. Volker Treichel which visited the Bureau’s head office in Abuja [and] said this was aimed at correcting the infrastructural deficit in the country.”

The Our Water, Our Right Movement led by the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has asked the Lagos Governor-elect, Mr. Babajide Sanwolu, to halt ongoing water privatisation in Lagos. The movement said “in tackling the water challenge, previous administrations including the outgoing Governor Akinwunmi Ambode have not consulted Lagos citizens, and instead, advanced false solutions including the globally-discredited Public Private Partnership (PPP) model of water privatisation.”

Students in water management and governance have produced a video about neoliberalism in the water sector. “There are numerous neoliberalizations of services and water resources, and we wanted to tell a story that was close to us. This is why we decided to tell the story of Zaida’s community in Punta de Mita, Mexico. The story centers on the re-location of local towns in favor of tourism developments and how this has affected the people by closing their access to the beaches. This means their livelihoods have been put at risk since, being a fishing community, its mayor source of income is the sea. But the developments do not only tamper with revenues, but also to their right to pursue enjoyment. This community finds its identity around the beach, as families gather to spend time together and different generations have been surfing the waves.” [Video, about 12 minutes]