The Lagos Water Corporation, LWC, has provided 32,000 meters to households in the state as part of measures to ensure accurate billing for water consumption.
Muminu Badmus disclosed this on Thursday at an end of year press conference in Ijora area of Lagos, Southwest Nigeria.
“What this means is that if you are not supplied water for a particular period, your credit will be in your meter, just like what obtains in the Power Sector.
It is our desire to meter every house in Lagos for better service delivery, but now we have commenced with the first phase, and metered 32,000 properties – pre-paid meters, 24,000; old meters, 6,000, and mechanical, 2,000.
Badmus said one good thing about the metering system was that it was meant to protect the interest of customers, as they were now aware of how much government charged per cubic meter.
“However, we need to advise our people to imbibe the culture of water conservation and use it wisely, that there is a global water scarcity threat, as countries of the world are working relentlessly to nip it in the bud before 2030.
Badmus also said that the government, through the LWC had also approved the construction of 100MGD Igbo-Nla (Phase 1) Water Scheme to serve Epe corridor down to Victoria Island, Ibeju – Lekki, Badore, Igbo-Efon, Aja, Victoria Island, Onikan and other communities in the axis, saying that the project would be executed on Public-Private Partnership, PPP, arrangement.
The Lagos State PPP model is the arrangement where the private investors will participate, and government will regulate and protect the interest of Lagosians, and this is not a profit-driven programme,” he explained.
He said Adiyan major Waterworks was currently supplying 70MGD and that as part of the State’s water facility expansion programmes, the government had embarked on the construction of Adiyan Phase II of 70MGD, to serve the western axis of the State, saying that when the reticulation is completed, it would serve additional three million residents of Lagos State.
This, in essence, he said, would provide the corporation with the ability to bill on scheduled days, and internally audit its accounts within the billing database, adding that this arose from the dissatisfaction associated with the almost defunct system of billing and revenue collection used by the Corporation, which hindered immediate updates of customer payments, added to the fact that it was not integrated with the meter management system which is of great importance to the organization’s operations.