LAGOS, JUNE 29, 2016 – The Managing Director (MD) of Lagos Water Corporation (LWC), Mr Mumuni Badmus, has identified its flat rate billing system as a major challenge to its operations.
Badmus, while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos on Wednesday, attributed the challenge to not having enough metering stations.
”Yes, there is a problem with our billing system; however, residents still have to pay their bills.
”Flat billing means it does not capture actual consumption and it is highly subsided.
”The arrangement with consumers is that whether there is water supply or not, they get the bills and have to pay.
“Virtually all households use much more water than the billing they get; what they pay is small compared to the cost of producing the water,” he said.
Badmus, however, said that the corporation was working towards metering houses, so that residents would start paying for whatever they consume.
He emphasised that the metering, apart from being advantageous to the corporation, would also help to stop wastage of water.
“However, once a house is metered, some would have to pay more than what they are getting as flat rate now,” he said.
In view of this, he said the corporation had started consulting with stakeholders and the state government to have an upward review of water charges in the state.
Badmus said the review would help the corporation to generate more funds to build additional water stations to get some areas in the state connected to the water supply mains.
He added that the corporation would also be seeking to boost its Public-Private-Participation (PPP) drive by getting more private investors involved in expanding water facilities in the state.
He, however, made a clarification that the PPP arrangement was not to be confused as having a plan to privatise the state’s water corporation.
