Nearly three years after Governor Peter Mbah promised to restore pipe-borne water to Enugu within 180 days, residents are still buying water from private vendors and boreholes. While billions of Naira have appeared in successive state budgets, reported releases tell a very different story.
Governor Mbah’s self-imposed deadline to restore pipe-borne water to Enugu metropolis was one of the defining pledges of his 2023 campaign. As of today, it remains unfulfilled for most residents of the state.
Governor Mbah had attached a specific deadline to this promise, 180 days. That deadline expired in November 2023. Yet, according to the figures and reports available, many households across the state capital continue to depend on water tankers, private boreholes, sachet water and other commercial suppliers for one of the most basic services a government is expected to provide.
The result represents what many describe as a significant failure to deliver on an explicit campaign commitment—and raises questions about the government’s budgeting, execution and accountability.
For families without reliable boreholes, that failure has a direct financial cost. SaharaReporters reported that some residents were paying as much as N35,000 for a 1,000-gallon tanker of water. Even more troubling were complaints that some properties were being asked to pay water charges despite receiving little or no public supply.
The financial record also raises perhaps the most serious questions.
Between 2023 and 2026, approximately N86.03 billion was provided for water-related capital expenditure in the figures reviewed: N16.16 billion in 2023, N28 billion in 2024, N23.2 billion in 2025 and another N18.67 billion provided for 2026.
Budget announcements are however not the same thing as expenditure. Reported releases and expenditure were considerably smaller. The figures show about N3.67 billion in 2023; N3.4 billion by September 2024; and just N895.4 million by September 2025.
These figures amount to approximately N7.97 billion reported as released or spent over the periods stated—less than 12 per cent of the combined 2023-2025 capital budget provisions of N67.36 billion, although the reporting periods for 2024 and 2025 cover only the first nine months of those years.
If the administration regarded restoration of water as sufficiently urgent to promise delivery within 180 days, why did the cash releases apparently fall so dramatically short of the amounts placed in the budget?
Yes, a budget signifies ambition, but until released it cannot pump water through a pipe.
If funds are repeatedly appropriated but not released, the government must explain why it continued announcing large capital provisions for a programme it was not financing at anything close to the same scale. If additional funds were eventually released beyond the periods captured in these figures, the administration should publish those records.
Mr Mbah’s administration can settle much of the argument by publishing verifiable performance data, rather than its announcements about installed capacity, the relevant measure for residents is the volume of treated water actually produced and delivered to homes every day.
How much water are the Ninth Mile and Oji schemes currently producing? How much enters the distribution network? How much reaches consumers? How much is lost to leakage? Which neighbourhoods receive water, and for how many hours each week?
Those figures should be capable of independent verification.
The condition of Enugu’s distribution infrastructure also deserves scrutiny. If substantial quantities of treated water are being lost through ageing pipes and leakages, then announcing production capacity without disclosing actual delivery is creating an exaggerated impression of progress.
The government should therefore publish both production and distribution figures, including non-revenue water and losses across the network.
There is an equally important consumer-protection issue in all of these. Residents who say they were billed for water they did not receive deserve an explanation. The government should establish whether such billing occurred, how many customers were affected and whether refunds or credits are due.
Almost three years after the administration’s 180-day deadline, residents still dependent on tankers and boreholes. They are entitled to judge Mbah’s promise not by his commissioning ceremonies or budgetary provisions, but by the simple question: Does water come out when I turn on my tap?
For too many households, the answer is NO!
And until that changes—or the government produces comprehensive, independently verifiable evidence showing otherwise—the 180-day water pledge will remain one of the clearest examples of the gap between the Mbah administration’s promises and its delivery.
Silas Elechi, is a journalist writing from the South Eastern parts of Nigeria
