Robustness and Flexibility of LWC Operations Under COVID-19 Outbreak

Towards the end of 2019, an outbreak of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) occurred in Wuhan, China and the virus has rapidly spread across the country several countries including Nigeria.

On 30th January 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global health crisis, and less than one and half (1 & 1/2) months later, on 11 March 2020 it was declared that COVID-19 has become a pandemic.

A pandemic outbreak caused by a virus leads to insecurity among populations of the World, Africa, Nigeria, particularly, Lagos State.

Working for the State in providing people (the Lagos residents) with Potable Water Services, the Lagos Water Corporation is under high expectations by the general public to provide safe and clean drinking water to the ever increasing population of the State.

It is the moment the Water Corporation has proved that she is resillient and efficient to provide the essential service for the society, the environment and State at large.

LWC today, with an installed total capacity of 210MGD (Millions Gallons per Day) faces challenges such as Poor/Epileptic power supply from the grid, Population explosion/Influx of the people to the State, Ageing Infrastructure, Unaccounted Water (Water Leakage, Burst pipes, Water theft), amongst others. Despite all the herculean challenges, this has not in any dounted the Corporation from carrying out her responsibility of producing and supplying water to over 22million Population of the State’s Centre of Excellence with Water demand of 540MGD.

This is the period the Corporation demonstrated her proactviness and efficiency by intensifying efforts towards improving and sustaining water delivery to residents of the State, knowing that the importance of Water at this critical stage cannot be underestimated.

Consideration the importance of regular washing of hands with soap and clean running water as one of the preventive measures against the spread of Coronavirus (Covid-19), the Corporation swung into action by inaguarating an Incident Team to urgently look into and address any obstacles that could disrupt water supply at this period of our lives and to ensure that LWC facilities in the State work to their optimal capacity without hindrances.

One of the major assignments/objectives of the team is to provide water for the well-being of the State’s residents, particularly, the Coronavirus Isolation Centres.

As a matter of urgency, the Corporation connected potable water supply to Onikan Isolation Centre, Onikan and restored Water supply to Yaba Isolation Centre, Yaba to ensure safe and continuous water supply to the Isolation centres which is of utmost importance to the State.

To further increase provision of safe and clean water supply to some parts of the State with limited access to supply, the Corporation provide Stand-Pipes at the Shomolu Waterworks. This is to enable people with shortage of water to have access to water supply to their various homes through Water tanker.

Similarly, repair works was undertaken in various waterworks to improve water supply. This includes: Shomolu Waterworks and other Waterworks such as Dolphin, Lekki, Ikoyi, Victoria Island (Saka Tinubu), Magodo, Itire Ikate, Mosan Okunola, Ikorodu (Lagos Road), Ojokoro, Akilo, amongst other to complement the available limited supply from major waterworks of Adiyan, Iju and others to increase service delivery to Lagosians.

It is no news that epileptic power supply has been one of the Corporation’s greatest challenges. In order to overcome this obstacle, the Corporation made an alternative arrangement by connecting to Public Power Supply (IKEDC), to avert problem of inconsistency in power supply being experienced with the Independent Power Supply (IPP). It is also important to mention at this stage, that this effort is to further sustain service, especially, at this period of Covid-19.

In order to enjoy uninterrupted service delivery and to complement Government directives of Stay at home during the lockdown period in the State, the Corporation rolled out additional payment channels to her premium customers for easy and convenient payments of their Water bills. This is to enable Customers make Payments within the comfort of their homes through various payment channels.

These channels include: Payment through any Bank Branch across the State (Customers can pay using Paydirect or Pay at any Bank in Nigeria); through ATM Machine (Customers can pay at any ATM machine, just choose Paybills or Quickteller option); Online (Customers can pay at https://www.quickteller.com/lwc or https://lagos.qpay.ng/Payment/Index); payment at any Zonal or regional office using POS devices, Interswitch Paypoint (Mobile Money operator at street corners).

Considering these efforts put in place by the Corporation, in addressing problems of water supply in the State, towards catering for the well-being of the residents, there is no gain saying that with the proactive measures being taken, LWC has improve and sustain water supply in the state, and has shown her commitment to serve Lagosians better, as the Corporation is improving in service delivery.