Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has blamed the Lagos government for saying boreholes in the Lekki Peninsula area of the state may be contaminated with faecal matter.
Mahmood Adegbite, permanent secretary in the office of drainage services and water resources at the state ministry of environment and water resources, recently said Lekki residents are probably drinking “shit water” due to polluted boreholes.
In a statement on Sunday, signed by Akinbode Oluwafemi, its executive director, CAPPA said the bluntness of Adegbite’s remarks has drawn attention, but the real concern is the failure it reveals.
“The government is bad-mouthing a crisis it manufactured,” the group said.
“Boreholes and even dug wells in Lagos are not luxury choices for residents. They are a survival response and the last resort of a people forced to become their own service providers while public institutions fail to meet this basic need.”
The Pan-African organisation said residents of Lekki and much of Lagos have relied on unsafe, self-supplied water for decades due to the state’s inability to provide reliable and affordable public water.
The group said the government is now openly acknowledging the health risks without accepting responsibility, which it described “as dishonest as it is troubling”.
CAPPA said the root cause of the crisis is the chronic neglect of public water infrastructure, which has left many Lagosians dependent on contaminated sources for survival.
The organisation further said the problem of faecal contamination, poor wastewater management, and untreated sewage is not new, but is a symptom of a water governance system that has been “deliberately left to rot” while leaders pursue “discredited privatisation models that place profit above people”.
The group said what is missing is not a diagnosis, but a comprehensive, transparent, and accountable plan to address the problem.
CAPPA said it has repeatedly raised concerns about underinvestment in water infrastructure, lack of transparency in governance, and attempts to impose private sector-led water models that have failed elsewhere.
“You cannot neglect your constitutional duty for decades, then turn around to shame people for doing what they must to survive,” CAPPA said.
“When the state cannot provide clean and safe water, people will do what they must to survive. The question we must ask is: What is the Lagos state government doing to ensure that its citizens no longer have to drink contaminated water, or live in fear of the next outbreak of disease?”
The organisation called for urgent investment in water and sanitation, suspension of market-based reforms, and the adoption of a publicly led, community-focused water governance framework.
It urged the government to work with residents, civil society, and experts in a transparent process to develop a people-centred water policy.
CAPPA also called for a state-wide emergency plan targeting underserved communities, repairing wastewater systems, and integrating climate-resilient approaches to water access.
The organisation said regulation of indiscriminate borehole drilling cannot happen without first providing viable public water alternatives.
“Lagosians are not to blame for drinking unsafe water. They are victims of policy failure. This failure must be acknowledged and corrected, not weaponised to justify even more anti-people reforms,” the statement reads.
