Lagos Water Corporation’s rehabilitation drive goals to revive waterworks, entice funding, enhance effectivity and strengthen local weather resilience amid rising demand and infrastructure challenges, writes Sunday Ehigiator
Dike Onwuamaeze
The Lagos Water Corporation (LWC) underneath the management of its Managing Director, Engr. Mukhtaar Tijani, not too long ago acquired worldwide recognition in Glasgow underneath the 2026 International Water Association (IWA) Climate Smart Utilities Recognition Programme. The honour made the LWC the second Nigerian utility to obtain the popularity after Kaduna in 2022, and the primary in southern Nigeria. The programme assesses utilities on local weather adaptation, greenhouse-gas mitigation and climate-smart management. The recognition additionally highlights LWC’s efforts to construct resilience regardless of longstanding funding and operational challenges.
The Glasgow recognition got here towards the backdrop of a broader effort to revive dormant waterworks, rehabilitate vital infrastructure, modernise distribution networks and strengthen the Corporation’s operations, as Lagos seeks to construct a water system able to responding not solely to at the moment’s calls for but additionally to the rising pressures of urbanisation and local weather change. That actuality offered a formidable problem when Tijani assumed workplace as Managing Director of the Corporation in July 2023, alongside Engr. Helen Omolanke Taiwo as Executive Director, Operations.
At the time, the Corporation reported that solely two of its 4 main remedy crops had been useful, producing a mixed 15 million gallons of water day by day, whereas solely six of its 48 mini and micro waterworks had been working, and even these had been under their capacities.
Three years later, the image has modified to considered one of an establishment present process a broad-based programme of rehabilitation, restructuring, technological modernisation, and partnership constructing.
For Tijani, nevertheless, the duty seems to have been much less about recognition and extra about rebuilding the establishment from its foundations, with main interventions now centered on restoring manufacturing capability and bettering the reliability of the programs required to transfer water throughout Lagos.
Replacing vital pumping tools
One of the newest interventions was the substitute of vital pumping tools at Iju Waterworks after greater than three a long time of service. LWC has acquired six clear-water pumps with motors and one extra pump head for Iju Waterworks, in addition to two raw-water pumps with motors and management programs for the Adiyan Intake. Installation of the brand new tools at Iju is ongoing.
With Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s imaginative and prescient to advance funding in vital water infrastructure, the intervention is anticipated to enhance water manufacturing and operational reliability at Iju after the brand new tools is put in and commissioned.
Powering the waterworks
Mukhtaar Tijani’s engineering and energy-sector expertise has introduced a worthwhile perspective to his management of the water sector. Reliable electrical energy is important to remedy crops, pumping stations and distribution networks. That understanding is mirrored within the collaboration between LWC and the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, linking the rehabilitation of water infrastructure with the facility programs required to preserve it working. Another main part of the infrastructure programme is the rebuilding of the Akute Independent Power Plant, which is meant to present devoted energy to vital water infrastructure.
On April 26, 2026, Governor Sanwo-Olu presided over the signing of the facility settlement with Fenchurch. Rebuilding of the 26 MW plant started on September 26, 2026, with the prevailing engines being eliminated for substitute with new gasoline engines. The plant is deliberate to provide Akute Intake, Iju and Adiyan waterworks.
Financed by Zenith Bank underneath the state’s Public-Private Partnership (PPP) scheme, the reported implementation plan is to ship 10 MW inside 4 months and the remaining 16 MW inside 12 months.
The dedicated-power funding is anticipated to deal with one of many vital constraints affecting water manufacturing and pumping reliability, significantly because the Corporation advances the rehabilitation of main waterworks and the completion of Adiyan II.
The Audacious Mandate
One of the defining options of Mukhtaar Tijani’s tenure has been the choice to method the Corporation’s challenges as interconnected issues fairly than remoted failures.
Production can’t be separated from pumping capability. Pumping can’t be separated from dependable energy. Increased manufacturing is of restricted worth with out useful distribution networks.
The cancellation of funding for the USAID-supported Lagos Urban Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (LUWASH) programme, initially valued at roughly $45 million, pressured the Corporation to overview its plans. The disruption adopted President Donald Trump’s halt to overseas assist and the next withdrawal of USAID help.
LWC had constructed its four-year rehabilitation plan across the anticipated funding. With no preliminary finances provision to cowl the ensuing hole, Mukhtaar Tijani and the Corporation reassessed their priorities, deciding on waterworks that the Lagos State Government might fund. The response was to preserve rehabilitation shifting, though the total programme might now not proceed as initially deliberate.
That philosophy is mirrored in Mukhtaar Tijani’s public statements. During a latest inspection, he stated: “The work is progressing steadily,” including that “We are pleased with the progress we have made so far. Procurement has been completed, all the equipment has been delivered to the site, and installation is progressing as scheduled.”
Reviving Dormant Waterworks
Among essentially the most seen points of the programme has been the rehabilitation and recommissioning of services that had both change into dormant or had been working under potential.
The Mosan Okunola Waterworks was recommissioned on December 14, 2023, with reported manufacturing restored to two million gallons day by day. Supply was additionally prolonged into Baruwa, an space that had confronted extended water shortage and groundwater contamination.
The intervention is critical not merely due to the restoration, however as a result of the Corporation moved past manufacturing to join the water to communities, with extra connections and community extensions deliberate.
Akilo Waterworks was recommissioned on December 12, 2025, following the rehabilitation carried out with WaterSupport Nigeria and Armani Beauty’s Aqua for Life initiative. The facility has a capability of 4,500 cubic metres day by day, with the capability to serve roughly 100,000 residents, alongside 20 water kiosks. The mission included new boreholes, substitute of electromechanical tools and rehabilitation of the distribution community. Importantly, the partnership additionally included family enumeration, baseline surveys, hygiene promotion and neighborhood engagement.
This mixture of bodily infrastructure and neighborhood engagement illustrates an rising mannequin inside the Corporation: water tasks are more and more being thought of not merely as engineering assignments, however as service-delivery programs.
The rehabilitation programme additionally contains the development of a brand new mini waterworks on Lagos Island and the rehabilitation of Ajegunle Waterworks.
Alongside these interventions is the $2.5 million grant-backed rehabilitation of Ojokoro Waterworks, supported by WaterSupport Nigeria and WorkforceWater, with the involvement of common YouTuber MrBeast. The partnership displays the worldwide help being drawn to the Corporation’s infrastructure programme underneath Mukhtaar Tijani’s management.
The Ojokoro rehabilitation contract was signed on September 4, 2026, with Bayroyal International Ltd. It contains civil, mechanical, electrical and instrumentation upgrades, borehole rehabilitation and drilling, photo voltaic integration, stress monitoring, leakage detection, automated community administration, metering and community enlargement. It is anticipated to profit roughly 72,000 residents when delivered. The Lagos Island, Ajegunle and Ojokoro tasks are focused for completion inside 12 months.
Adiyan II: Moving a long-delayed mission ahead
Perhaps essentially the most consequential mission within the Corporation’s rehabilitation programme is Adiyan II.
The long-delayed waterworks mission was revived in November 2023 following renewed authorities funding commitments, contractor remobilisation and stronger mission oversight. Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu inspected the Adiyan II mission in February and December 2025 as work progressed, offering help to the mission alongside the mission oversight being undertaken by Mukhtaar Tijani and the Corporation’s administration.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu publicly acknowledged Mukhtaar Tijani’s position in reviving Adiyan II on the first Lagos Physical Planning Summit, held at Eko Hotels and Suites, Victoria Island, on October 15–16, 2024.
Following former Governor Babatunde Fashola’s enchantment to prioritise the mission, Sanwo-Olu recommended Mukhtaar Tijani’s persistence and constant advocacy in bringing the long-stalled waterworks again on observe.
When accomplished, Adiyan II is designed to produce 320,000 cubic metres of handled water day by day, greater than 70 million gallons, and is projected to serve greater than 5 million residents. Tijani has repeatedly highlighted the significance of the mission. In a public replace, he stated he had mentioned the Adiyan II mission and the Corporation’s broader infrastructure upgrades, together with the event of community intelligence to enhance water distribution.
The mission, which is anticipated to be operational in 2027, can be being pursued alongside funding in devoted energy infrastructure, together with the rebuilding of the Akute Independent Power Plant, which is deliberate to provide Adiyan in addition to Iju and Akute Intake.
Rebuilding Network Beneath the sleepless metropolis
Water infrastructure will not be solely about remedy crops. Much of the problem lies beneath the roads and communities via which water should journey.
Under Mukhtaar Tijani’s management, the Corporation has labored with technical companions to hint and digitise greater than 170 kilometres of transmission pipelines utilizing Geographic Information System expertise.
Previously unmapped sections had been included, whereas valves, junctions and key clients had been geotagged. A preliminary hydraulic mannequin was additionally developed to analyse water flows and stress.
In 2025, LWC went additional by deploying a robotic pipeline inspection machine developed with Konsadem Associates and McAlpha Inc. The expertise is designed to establish corrosion, cracks, blockages and potential leak factors. The ensuing data has been used to inform rehabilitation priorities in areas together with Ishasi, Apapa, Magodo, Alexander and Isolo.
The significance of this intervention is that it strikes infrastructure administration from guesswork in the direction of data-driven decision-making.
Opening the PPP door
Another part of the technique is the Corporation’s try to leverage non-public capital and experience with out surrendering authorities possession of its water belongings.
LWC developed its 2025–2030 Strategic Business Plan, unveiled in December 2024, with 12 precedence objectives and a costed implementation schedule.
The priorities embody rehabilitation of main remedy crops and trunk mains, completion of Adiyan II, restoration of energy infrastructure, rehabilitation of 16 mini and micro waterworks, workers growth and improved buyer engagement.
The Corporation additionally established a public-private partnership framework for seven pilot schemes masking Lekki, Akilo, Victoria Island Annex, Magodo, Abesan, Alexander and Apapa. Following stakeholder engagement in August 2025, formal invites for bids had been issued.
The proposed mannequin retains authorities possession of the belongings whereas introducing non-public financing and operational experience.
At a workers engagement on the proposed PPP programme, Mukhtaar Tijani articulated his ambition succinctly: “My vision is to see the waterworks alive.” He additionally spoke of the target of enabling residents to expertise functioning water provide of their communities.
Building for the longer term
The Corporation’s present path more and more extends past repairing what’s damaged to getting ready for future calls for. That contains climate-smart infrastructure, improved community intelligence, digital buyer programs, stronger partnerships and new financing fashions.
As Lagos State’s inhabitants grows, the water demand continues to enhance, making it needed to broaden infrastructure to preserve tempo. In response, the Corporation is growing a grasp plan to information its efforts to shut the hole between water provide and demand.
The plan is being designed as a roadmap masking the quick time period, from 2026 to 2030; the medium time period, from 2031 to 2040; and the long run, from 2041 onwards.
Through this method, the Corporation goals to place present rehabilitation efforts inside a wider plan for assembly the state’s future water wants, linking the restoration of current services with the infrastructure enlargement required to serve a rising inhabitants.
From restoration to resilience
Perhaps essentially the most revealing measure of Mukhtaar Tijani’s work is the breadth of the agenda. The goal is now not merely to restore particular person waterworks. It is to create a utility able to producing, distributing, metering, and managing water extra effectively, whereas attracting technical experience and funding.
The Corporation’s partnerships involving WaterSupport, JICA, the Resilient Water Accelerator, Suez and different technical and funding companions proceed to present a part of the institutional backing for the reforms. Yet, the last word measure of any water utility stays easy: whether or not residents can activate a faucet and obtain secure, dependable water.
That is why the importance of the reforms at Lagos Water Corporation lies not solely within the variety of tasks introduced or services rehabilitated, however within the try to reconnect infrastructure funding with on a regular basis service supply.
The journey will not be full. Some tasks stay underneath development, some advantages are nonetheless projected, and several other infrastructure investments are at procurement or implementation levels. But the report since 2023 exhibits an establishment pursuing change on a number of fronts, from dormant waterworks and ageing pumps to digital mapping, workers restructuring, private-sector partnerships and local weather resilience.
For a metropolis that doesn’t sleep, whose inhabitants and water demand proceed to broaden, that institutional rebuilding might in the end show as vital as any single waterworks. The activity forward is to flip the momentum into sustained, measurable and reliable water provide for extra Lagos residents.
As Tijani places it, the ambition is simple: to deliver the waterworks again to life and make sure that the Corporation’s transformation in the end interprets into dependable water provide for the folks it was established to serve.
