Lagos Water Network Serves Only 1.03% of Residents, LWC Says

The Lagos Water Corporation (LWC) has disclosed that its water distribution network serves 34,424 registered households, representing approximately 1.03 per cent of Lagos State’s estimated 20 million residents.

The corporation’s Deputy Director of Corporate Affairs and Brand Management, Rasaq Anifowoshe, disclosed this during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, explaining that the connected households account for an estimated 206,444 people, based on an average household size of six.

Anifowoshe said the corporation had an installed water production capacity of approximately 210 million gallons per day, compared with the state’s estimated daily demand of 540 million gallons, as stated in the Lagos State Water Supply Master Plan.

However, a review of the corporation’s 2025 production records showed that it produced approximately 2,633.22 million gallons throughout the year, translating to an average daily output of about 7.21 million gallons.

The figure represents roughly three per cent of its installed production capacity, highlighting the gap between the corporation’s infrastructure capacity, actual output and the water needs of Lagos residents.

Anifowoshe identified ageing distribution pipelines, rapid population growth, urbanisation and the need to rehabilitate and expand existing facilities as major challenges affecting the corporation’s ability to provide reliable public water supply.

Consequently, many residents depend on private boreholes, public water points and commercial vendors, increasing household expenses in communities where public supply is unavailable or irregular.

Residents interviewed across Iponri, Oworonshoki, Costain, Apapa Road and Ebute Metta described difficulties accessing reliable water, citing inadequate pressure, failed facilities and inconsistent supply.

At Iponri Housing Estate, Adebayo Solomon said his household spent approximately ₦1,500 daily on water supplied by vendors, amounting to about ₦45,000 monthly and ₦547,500 annually if the expenditure remained constant.

He said electricity shortages sometimes affected water availability, forcing his household to rely on stored supplies or pay higher prices. Solomon added that he would welcome an LWC connection if it provided consistent supply and reduced his dependence on vendors.

Another Iponri resident, Abdulkareem Ibrahim, said he relied on public boreholes provided by philanthropists because his community did not receive water from the corporation. However, power interruptions sometimes disrupted pumping, forcing him to purchase water from vendors.

In Oworonshoki, Amanda Ogbodo said she spent between ₦2,200 and ₦3,600 weekly on vendor-delivered borehole water. She added that supply from the LWC had become more consistent in parts of her area over the preceding four months, particularly from Friday afternoons into Saturdays.

The corporation said it planned to rehabilitate and upgrade micro and mini water treatment plants, extend distribution networks and digitise infrastructure to enable remote monitoring of underground pipelines and other assets. The proposed digital system is expected to help reduce water losses and non-revenue water.

Anifowoshe said the full rehabilitation of the treatment plants could make water accessible to more than 5.6 million households.

Other planned interventions include rehabilitating Ojokoro Mini Waterworks, constructing Lagos Island Micro Waterworks and developing the Igbonla water treatment plant, with a proposed capacity of 100 million gallons per day, to improve supply along the Lekki-Epe corridor.

Meanwhile, the Lagos State Government’s second-quarter 2026 budget implementation report showed that 36.2 per cent of the approved annual budget for improving 15 existing mini and micro waterworks had been spent by June 30. Expenditure on the Adiyan Phase II Waterworks project stood at four per cent of its approved annual budget during the same period.

The expenditure figures do not establish the physical completion status of the projects or the volume of water they currently supply.

The corporation’s ability to expand access will depend on infrastructure rehabilitation, increased production and the extension of reliable distribution services to communities that continue to depend on alternative water sources.