ABSTRACT
As urban areas in Nigeria continue to grow, the need to meet increasing water demand for the population has become a major problem of concern to Urban Managers. The State water agencies who are supposed to provide adequate and potable water supply to urban population have records of poor performance and institutional challenges. To achieve the national and state water supply policy objectives major institutional reforms must be carried out in our water sectors to provide efficient and sustainable water supply for the urban needs. In view of this, the study first appraisal the existing public water supply system and conditions in Lafia town with population of 263,998. The survey investigation was based on a three-stage clustered sampling framework in which a sample of 500 households (representing 2.5% sample size of the 20,308 total households in Lafia) was drawn across the three Water Board area offices (Lafia East, Lafia North and Lafia West) forming about 12 neighbourhoods of the urban areas and a systematic random sampling was used to administer questionnaires. Another sample of 20 questionnaires was administered to source out information among the stakeholders on their opinion about PSP. These results obtained shows that the water coverage in Lafia urban area was only 33% and 67% of the urban area were not covered by the network. From the 33% of the urban area that was covered with public water supply network out of which 57.3% of the households have their houses connected while 42.7% were not connected to official networks but depend on public taps and other sources. The result also shows that only about 30% of the Lafia urban population have access to potable water supply and others rely on alternative sources of water supply that may be polluted. In addition, the result of enabling environment shows that legal policies, regulatory framework, willingness and ability to pay for water supply, stakeholders and consumers assessment support a conducive environment for private sector participation in public water supply systems in Lafia town, and a lease contract was selected as the best option for water supply in Lafia town. The study proposed 10 years partnership arrangement based on the selected PSP model and recommend strong political will and commitment from government to promote water supply system, establishment of management regulatory commission for PPP. In view of the fact that there will be increase in tariff due to the new reform which some households may be unable to pay for water supply, measures targeting the poor such as low-cost options of obtaining water supply through the public stand posts and commercial distribution outlets was recommended. Finally, the research has provided useful insights as to the way forward for water supply partnership and commercialization in Nigeria, and that there is no one-model-suits-all approach to water privatization. Each country must therefore design a framework most suitable to its environment.