WWD: Lagos State Water Corporation Advocates Water Conservation

Nkasiobi Oluikpe

“Even with the little water that we have, let’s conserve, minimize and be practical on how we use this water. There is nowhere that water comes from, there is no magic other than the water cycle.”

The above were statements coming from the Chief Operations Officer (COO) of the Lagos State Water Corporation, Deji Johnson who represented the Managing Director of the corporation, Engineer Olalekan Shodeinde, on the occasion of the World Water Day celebration conference, organized by the the CWAY Group, Isolo, Lagos.

According to Johnson, the same water that is being consumed on earth today, is the same as was available right from origin. It only goes through a recycling process of evaporation from the seas and ocean, falling back as rains, flowing into the same seas and oceans and the cycle continues. It’s all about a recycling process, he said.

He advised that because of the huge gap between the demand (650million gallons) and the production capacity of the water production infrastructure (210million) that it is only ideal for people to be very practical in their usage.

He also pointed out that people keep complaining that since God provided water free to humanity, why then were they paying for it. In reaction he stated that although there is water everywhere on the earth but that the quantity of fresh water is very limited.

The extraction, treatment and distribution processes, he said, cost a lot of money.

“Water has to be extracted, treated, pumped and delivered to homes. To add value to that, there is a cost to power, there is a cost to pumping, there is a cost to chemical filtration and the list goes on and on and on, I can guarantee you that the cost of a 5 litre tap water is the cost of 75cl of a bottled water. We have to recognize that there is a value added to the water.

“What we need to do also, is to allow our own citizens to understand that there is going to be a price to pay for water. The sooner we wake up and understand that, the better for us. True cost of water has to be paid.”

Furthermore, he mentioned that water production funding comes mainly from the state’s Internally Generated Revenues (IGRs) and the ones they get from the state.

Unfortunately, he said that the state does not have only water to contend with. Water, according to him, is just one of the numerous agencies of government. And that if the government should invest all of its resources on water alone, everything else would have to suffer, he remarked.

“Water is not a cheap industry. Money has to be invested for us to get the best out of it.”