LEGAL LIFELINES: STRENGTHENING WATER AND SANITATION GOVERNANCE IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Nigeria's water and sanitation crisis reflects governance failure rather than resource scarcity. With only 67% basic water access and 64 million lacking adequate sanitation, infrastructure deficits stem from chronic underfunding and other factors. Through doctrinal analysis and comparative law, the article examines Nigeria's governance architecture, analysing constitutional mandates, institutional coordination failures, and accountability mechanisms. Drawing on comparative constitutional rights community oversight models, it demonstrates how targeted legal reforms and other reforms can transform service delivery. The analysis reveals that Nigeria's challenges are primarily implementation failures within weak institutional structures among others. The article concludes that legal solutions exist but require political will to overcome entrenched resistance. Can legal reforms alone overcome Nigeria's water crisis, or are deeper political reforms necessary?