Rights groups fault absence of access to water in party manifestos, campaigns.
By Agbonkhese Oboh Rights groups and activists have expressed worry over the absence of a clear path to universal access to water for Nigerians from campaigns and manifestoes of political parties and candidates for the 2027 elections.
Recall that the manifesto has as goal that, by the end of the decade, no citizen lives more than five minutes from a clean water source.
The groups include Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees, AUPCTRE; Citizens Free Service Forum, CFSF; the Renevlyn Development Initiative, RDI; Ecumenical Water Network, EWN; Africa, Child Health Organisation, CHO; the Environmental Defenders Network, EDEN, and the New Life Community Care Initiative, NELCCI.
They pointed out that instead of progress, current global metrics show that clean water access in Nigeria is around 29.90% even as institutional fragmentation across state and federal levels continue to stall progress in the water sector. Rising from a meeting with the new national executives of AUPCTRE in Abuja led by Comrade Eugene Maji, they re-echoed that their observations about the parlous state of water utilities had also been captured in Dry Taps: A Damning Verdict on the State of Water Utilities in Nigeria. State, FG neglect The report exposed how water utilities have been neglected by the federal and state governments and are now operating far below capacity, thus forcing most Nigerians to depend on unwholesome and expensive alternatives. The report, released in 2025 covered Oyo, Lagos, Kogi, Enugu, Edo and Kano states.
MSEApp News is publishing an original rewrite of this tip for readers, based on reporting associated with Vanguard.