The Nigerian Government has long considered the provision of water supply and sanitation services to be the domain of the federal, state and local governments, among others. However, the public sector has not been successful in meeting more than a small portion of the demand for water and sanitation of residential and commercial users. Services are in critically short supply. Many households, often the poorest, end up purchasing water from private vendors much more expensively than from the public supply. Water supply services, where they exist, are unreliable and of low quality and are not sustainable because of inefficient management, poor operation and pricing and failure to recover costs. Currently, the existing institutional structure at the Federal, State and Local levels of Government would not be optimal for accelerated access. This is due to the non- existence of effective decentralization of the decision making process in the sector. In addition, the capacity of Local Government Authorities (LGAs) is very weak and consequently do not play any meaningful role in water supply activities. Furthermore, State Agencies and River Basins Authorities implement projects without significant participation from the private sector or NGOs. Major sector reforms and institutional strengthening are required to ensure efficient implementation of urban and rural water supplies. In particular, for sustainable water management, it is imperative to ensure decentralisation of water management to the lowest appropriate level, to promote the visibility of research and training institutions, private sector participation in water development and delivery, and to implement full and operational legal framework for water resources administration in the country.
展开▼
