The Global Head and National Coordinator of the Organised Private Sector in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (OPS-WASH), Dr. Nicholas Igwe, has called for a fundamental shift in Nigeria’s water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector, saying civil society organisations (CSOs), despite decades of impactful interventions, cannot on their own build the sustainable commercial market needed to guarantee long-term access to water and sanitation services.
Speaking during a stakeholders’ engagement on the future of the WASH sector, Dr. Igwe acknowledged the significant contributions civil society organisations have made over the last three decades in documenting Nigeria’s water and sanitation challenges, advocating for underserved communities, and delivering essential services in areas where government institutions and private operators were absent.
According to him, CSOs have played a pivotal role in expanding access to water, sanitation and hygiene through the construction of boreholes, water points, sanitation facilities and hygiene programmes that have benefited millions of Nigerians.
However, he argued that the sector has now reached the limits of what donor-funded interventions can achieve.
“The contribution of civil society organisations has a ceiling. The next phase of WASH development requires a functioning commercial market, and that demands institutional structures and capabilities that CSOs are neither designed nor funded to provide,” he said.
Dr. Igwe explained that most civil society organisations operate under donor-funded models that measure success by outputs such as the number of latrines built, boreholes drilled, households reached and communities served.
While describing these achievements as valuable, he noted that they often fail to deliver lasting impact because they are rarely supported by sustainable financing mechanisms after donor funding expires.
He said many water facilities and sanitation projects across Africa have gradually fallen into disrepair because there were no viable revenue models to fund maintenance, repairs and long-term operations once development partners exited.
According to him, sustainable WASH services require more than infrastructure delivery. They require investable financial instruments, standardised commercial contracts, bankable off-take agreements and an independent regulatory environment capable of attracting long-term private capital.
“These are not functions donor-funded NGOs are mandated or resourced to perform,” he stated.
Dr. Igwe further identified what he described as a “commercial commitments problem,” noting that private investors require credible institutions capable of making and honouring long-term financial commitments before investing in water infrastructure.
He explained that investors financing water treatment plants and other WASH infrastructure require legally enforceable agreements backed by financially stable institutions that can guarantee predictable revenue over many years.
According to him, civil society organisations lack the balance sheets, guarantees and financial standing needed to underwrite such commercial risks.
“Their project cycles typically run for three to five years, while infrastructure investments require commitments spanning 10 to 20 years. That structural mismatch has discouraged investment and contributed to failed or stalled WASH transactions across Africa,” he said.
Dr. Igwe also warned against what he described as the “advocacy architecture confusion”—the growing tendency to mistake advocacy successes for actual market development.
While acknowledging that advocacy by civil society organisations helped place water and sanitation at the centre of global development discussions, including the Sustainable Development Goals, he stressed that political commitments alone do not create investable projects.
According to him, transforming policy commitments into commercially viable investments requires sophisticated financial structuring, regulatory reforms, private sector coordination and sustained engagement with lenders, operators and investors.
He argued that these specialised functions fall outside the traditional mandate of civil society organisations and are not supported by existing donor funding structures.
“The sector needs strong civil society organisations to continue holding governments accountable, representing communities and monitoring service delivery. But it also needs commercially focused institutions with the mandate, technical expertise and financial capacity to build the market that sustainable water and sanitation services depend on,” he said.
Dr. Igwe maintained that achieving universal access to safe water and sanitation in Nigeria would require stronger collaboration between government, development partners, civil society and the organised private sector, with greater emphasis on creating investment-friendly frameworks capable of unlocking long-term private capital.
He concluded that while civil society organisations have successfully raised awareness, influenced policy and expanded access to basic services, the next phase of WASH development must focus on building commercially sustainable markets that can finance, operate and maintain water and sanitation infrastructure long after donor-funded projects have ended.
