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Nigeria: 'Release Adiyan-Iju Waterworks EIA'
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This Day (Lagos)
8 July 2008
Posted to the web 9 July 2008
Godwin Haruna
Lagos
The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has demanded the release of details of the revised Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) on the Adiyan and Iju Waterworks.
To the group, the EIA has remained inaccessible to the public days after it was supposed to have been put on display to enable for public comments and inputs.
ERA/FoEN expressed reservations on the dearth of information on the document in all the venues where it was to be on display for 21 days for public scrutiny and contributions.
It added that the non display of the document is a breach of public trust, and indicated that the project guidelines and environmental considerations might not have been adhered to by the promoters.
A public notice posted in national newspapers on June 26 signed by the General Manager of Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA) had announced the display of the document in seven venues.
Three of the venues in Lagos are LASEPA Building, Ikeja, Lagos State Water Corporation Office, Ijora, and Ifako-Ijaiye Local Government. The rest are in Abuja, the Federal capital Territory (FCT).
Adiyan and Iju Waterworks benefit from a $200 million (over N23 billion) World Bank loan for rehabilitation and expansion of the existing water supply in Lagos and Cross Rivers State, among other project components under the Second National Urban Water Sector Reform Project.
Its promoters have touted the project, which has been widely criticised by civil society organisations, as the only solution to epileptic water supply in Lagos.
In a statement issued in Lagos yesterday, ERA/FoEN claimed the state government is deliberately making it impossible for the public to gain access to the document.
"It is a shame that at a time the whole world is embracing sound environmental practices, a strategic document meant for public consumption is subjected to the theatrics of hide and seek" said ERA/FoEN Executive Director, Nnimmo Bassey.
Bassey pointed out that several communities around the project site in Adiyan, a suburb of Lagos, including Ajuwon and Matogun have complained of effluent from the project site which have resulted in flooding, loss of livelihoods, and death of some of their members and therefore want to know the safeguards in the document, if any.
"The lives of people cannot be toyed with because the EIA Act No. 86 of 1992 makes it mandatory for proponents of major development activities to carry out an EIA to ensure that the project activities are environmentally and socially sound, and sustainable" the ERA/FoEN Executive Director added.
Residents of the impacted communities continue to count their losses and have consistently demanded the re-routing of the drainage channel of the waterworks effluents as the only remedy to constant flooding caused by the regular discharge.
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Last year the Iju-Ajuwon Road which runs to the boundary linking Lagos and Ogun State was virtually cut off due to the effluent-induced flooding which has created craters in the entire stretch.
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