Questions
1. Have you identified any violations of the rights to water and/or sanitation? If yes, please explain.
Yes. The ideology of the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN)is built on Article 24 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights which states thus: All people shall have the right to (a) generally satisfactory environment favorable to their development. Flowing from this, ERA/FoEN believesthat every Nigerian should have a right to this natural gift of nature. This right has been continually violated by the activities of an inept government and private companies that are only interested in the commodification of nature for profits and greed. For example, ERA/FoEN advocacy work is carried out in communities in the Niger Delta where rivers, streams and other sources of natural and clean water have been polluted by the activities of the oil companies that spill oil into their environment which pollute the rivers and streams, hampers fishing and other means of local livelihoods. Due to the violation of their rights, local conflicts have festered and worsened the plights of people especially women who now have to trek several kilometres to fetch water. Private companies on the other hand, specialize in casting doubts on the wholesomeness of public water continue to rake in huge profits by privatization including grabbing natural springs, and bottling water for sale at exorbitant prices.
2. What do you regard as the structural causes and underlying determinants of the human rights violations you have identified? How do these relate to power relationships between various groups and sectors of society?
The major cause of conflicts is lack of right to clean water for industrial and domestic activities. Privatisation of water, seen as a public good only reflects government as irresponsible.There is lack of transparency and accountability in the water sector especially with regard to use of funds from the World Bank and International Financial Institutions. The World Bank, in one of its recent reports claimed that in spite of the mammoth funds ploughed into water projects in Nigeria, all the projects funded in Nigeria have failed. Ironically the bank is still funding water projects in Nigeria. Some weeks back it announced another $800 million investment in the same sector it said, has failed.This failure will likely continue because water is seen as a right and not for sale. Many people are not able to afford water priced out of the reach of poor people.
3. Have you identified particular groups and individuals whose rights have been violated disproportionately? Which individuals and groups?
In urban centers like Lagos, Benin City, Port Harcourt, Abuja, water has become a status symbol. This is because they are able to afford generator plants and sink boreholes to pump water and supply privately to their households. The majority of urban dwellers who are poor are left out and forced to buy water on a daily basis. In rural communities, water supply is worse hence they depend on polluted water and rainfall. About 70 % of the 160 million Nigerians right to water have been violated.
ERA/FoEN has identified several communities whose right to water has been systematically breached by pollution from the corporations. Most of these communities such as Ikarama, Goi, Bodo etc in Nigeria’s Niger Delta have been affected by leaking oil pipelines operated by Shell, Chevron and other oil companies operating in Nigeria. Government failure to properly regulate the sector is also a major problem.
4. What activities do you undertake to monitor the realization of the human rightsto water and/or sanitation and alleged violations?
ERA/FoEN has been engaged in the monitoring of the oil companies activities which target exposing oil impacts and water bodies pollution. We are opposed too to water privatization and the massive corruption in the water sector. The partnerships between the Nigerian government and private companies that have remained within the realms of secrecy should come under greater scrutiny. Our campaign has focused on the need for transparency and accountability in the water sector. For instance, in 2008 ERA/FoEN exposed a breach of international best practices by the Lagos State Water Corporation in the implementation of a World Bank-funded project in Lagos. The Water Corporation failed to carry out Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and claimed it carried along the local community folks who might be potentially impacted. ERA/FoEN investigations confirmed otherwise and the issues were exposed through the media.
ERA/FoEN has plans in the offing to build a coalition of like-minded civil society and NGOs promoting water issues from the rights-based perspectivesincluding appropriate water pricing for corporations.
5. Have you taken any cases on the rights to water and/or sanitation to court? If yes, please elaborate.
At the moment, ERA/FoEN has not taken any case on water to court. However, ERA/FoEN has been engaging in enlightenment and awareness creation campaigns on the rights to water and exposing water scams which have denied Nigerians the right to their natural patrimony (springs, rivers, safe drinking water etc). The aim of this is to mobilise local populations denied this right to demand a repeal of laws that do not guarantee them the right to water.
6. Have you been involved in procedures before other accountability mechanisms? If yes, please elaborate.
ERA/FoEN has been involved in dialogues geared towards policy adoptions in Nigeria’s water sector facilitated by the Water and Sanitation Media Network. The Dialogue which focuses on Water and Climate Change highlights water resources management issues in the context of climate change. The aim is to empower Nigeria’s water resources management stakeholders to engage in National and International negotiations to ensure that water is placed on the climate agenda. The dialogue holds quarterly in Lagos.
ERA/FoEN belongs to global coalition working on water issues such as Friends of the Earth International, Rivers Network, and others working on the UN process in relation to water. ERA water campaigners have published some articles and magazine stories on water advocacy.
7.Have you sought to address the lack of policy design or policy implementation, the failure to take steps, the failure to take targeted measures, the lack of sufficient budgetary allocation or similar failures? How have you framed these failures as human rights violations? What standards of review have you relied on?
On the aforementioned issues ERA/FoEN hasidentified most importantly the lack of political will on the part of government to check corruption in the water sector and the active involvement of government at all levels in the said corruption as the bane of the water sector. We have therefore pinned our arguments on human rights to water on Article 24 of the African charter which recognizes the rights of African peoples to self determination and self actualization as keys in our advocacy
8. Have you sought to address and seek remedies for discriminatory practices? Have you sought to address structural inequalities in the realization of the rights to water and/or sanitation? If yes, please elaborate.
Yes. ERA/FOEN has challenged the Lagos State Government on the implementation of world bank funded water project without conducting the required Environmental Impact Assessment(EIA) before any project could be embarked upon. ERA took up these unacceptable practices and put in the media. This compelled the corporation to start engaging the local community in discussion and other subsequent projects
ERA/ FOEN was also the first organization to raise alarm on Nigerian government scam involving a N100billion scam on phony borehole project which was not implemented in any part of Nigeria yet money was disbursed for faceless contractors. This alarm compelled the house committee on water and agriculture to investigate the scam and make recommendations to government to identify the contractors, recover the monies and prosecute those behind the scam.