Lekki water high quality deteriorates regardless of rising family remedy prices
Residents throughout Lekki proceed to depend on discoloured, generally foul-smelling borehole water, a longstanding problem that highlights the widening infrastructure hole in one in all Lagos’ fastest-growing city corridors.
Regardless of years of complaints, the issue persists with no fast aid in sight, forcing households and companies to adapt at vital private and {financial} value.
Throughout a number of neighbourhoods: Chevron Drive, Ajah, Ikate, and Lekki Section 1, borehole water is more and more reserved for non-essential makes use of reminiscent of flushing bogs and cleansing.
For consuming, bathing, and cooking, households rely closely on bottled water, tanker deliveries, or small family remedy items.
The day by day routine now contains planning round water security, managing storage capability, and absorbing rising prices.
Past inconvenience, environmental and public well being specialists warn that the reliance on boreholes in Lekki’s marshy terrain carries long-term environmental dangers, together with the potential for land subsidence.
The realm’s tender alluvial soil, excessive water desk, and restricted sewer infrastructure make its groundwater particularly susceptible to contamination, putting stress on each residents and the broader city system.
Lekki’s water disaster is rooted in many years of inadequate public funding in piped water methods. Whereas Lagos State has lengthy acknowledged the necessity for large-scale water distribution, fast inhabitants progress and unregulated city growth have far outpaced authorities capability.
Many components of Lekki Section 1 and surrounding estates have been developed with out central water provisions, leaving personal boreholes because the default supply.
The realm’s environmental traits amplify the issue. Lekki sits on tender, marshy soil with a shallow water desk, situations that permit contaminants from septic methods, tidal flows, and surrounding water our bodies to seep into groundwater.
Interviews with residents spotlight how widespread the problem has turn into. Kayode Opeyemi, who lives and works in Ajah, instructed Nairametrics that his workplace borehole water stays brownish even after remedy.
“We solely use it for flushing and mopping. All the workplace depends upon dispensers and bottled water for consuming and cooking,” he defined.
At residence, Opeyemi and his neighbours rely totally on tanker deliveries. A typical 2,000-litre tank, costing between N3,500 and N5,000, lasts 4 to 6 weeks relying on consumption. Related patterns have been reported throughout a number of components of the Lekki-Ajah axis.
For higher-end developments, estate-wide purification methods function advertising and marketing benefits.
One property supervisor round Chevron Drive disclosed that the property’s reverse osmosis system permits residents to securely use water for laundry and cooking. Nonetheless, the fee is substantial: a 5,000-litre system prices about N16 million, whereas a 1,000-litre-per-hour system is priced at roughly N6 million.
Frequent filter replacements, required because of excessive sediment ranges, additional drive up upkeep prices. Residents pay a month-to-month service price of N50,000, protecting water remedy and different facilities.
Dr. Doyin Odubanjo, Govt Secretary of the Nigerian Academy of Science, instructed Nairametrics that many boreholes in Lagos comprise microbial and chemical contaminants, making untreated water unsafe.
He advises households to put in applicable purification methods or, at a minimal, boil water earlier than consumption. Nonetheless, he emphasised that particular person or estate-level options usually are not sustainable.
“Centralized water remedy is the one manner to make sure constant high quality and defend public well being,” he mentioned, arguing that household-level purification merely transfers accountability from authorities to people, typically at the next value and decrease effectivity.
The Lagos State Authorities, in October 2024, outlined measures to bridge the hole between its present water output and the estimated day by day demand of 240 million gallons. With assist from companions like USAID, 5 mini and micro waterworks are present process refurbishment.
Commissioner for Setting and Water Assets, Tokunbo Wahab, instructed Nairametrics that main tasks reminiscent of Adiyan Section II, anticipated to ship 70 million gallons per day, and the 45-million-gallon-per-day Iju Waterworks are central to long-term plans. Wahab famous that whereas enhancements are anticipated, water providers won’t be free, although subsidies might assist defend low-income households.
Unbiased researcher Tonami Playman argues that Lagos can’t meaningfully enhance water entry with out rebuilding its ageing distribution community.
Even with new production capability, he warns that the absence of recent pipelines will forestall water from reaching properties and companies.
Playman additionally stresses the necessity for a complete sewer system, noting that wastewater infrastructure and potable water provide should advance collectively.
He added that personal funding is unlikely to fill the hole as a result of water utilities are capital-intensive and typically unprofitable at consumer-friendly tariffs.