70% of Lagos dey drink from nylon bag: di water wahala wey nobody dey solve
Seventy percent of Lagosian dey get their drinking water from sachet bag — dat small plastic pouch wey dem dey sell for every junction for ₦50 each, now ₦500–₦600 per bag of 20. Lagos Water Corporation, even though dem collect ₦16 billion budget for five years, only dey give pipe water to less than 4% of resident. Staff for di Corporation own Iponri office, dem don tell new resident say borehole na "di only option." Di water infrastructure no be say e fail — dem never build am for di scale wey 18-million-person city need.
Di economics follow di same Island-Mainland divide. For Island — V.I., Ikoyi, Lekki — underground water get salt because e near lagoon and ocean. Borehole must drill 80–150 metres deep and need reverse osmosis treatment, wey push total installation go ₦2–₦3 million. Monthly tanker delivery cost ₦40,000–₦47,000 for 10,000 litres. For Island resident, water be ₦100,000–₦150,000 monthly expense wey rarely appear for any cost-of-living calculation.
Mainland tell different story. Area like Alimosho, Ikorodu, and Ogba sit on top shallow freshwater. Borehole drilling cost ₦800,000–₦900,000 and produce water wey you fit drink with basic filter. Di payback versus tanker delivery no reach 12 months. Dis one na one of di genuine advantage of mainland living wey di rent-versus-Island conversation always miss.
Sachet water — "pure water" — remain di daily reality for most people. For ₦500–₦600 per bag, family of four wey consume 3 bags per day dey spend ₦45,000–₦54,000 per month — almost same amount with tanker delivery, but e dey generate mountain of plastic waste. Nylon price hike from di Iran wahala don push price up 25–50% for April 2026.
The through-line across all of am na say for Lagos, water na cost wey you go provide for yourself, no be utility wey you fit assume. The public pipe network dey reach little of the city reliably, so nearly every household dey budget for their own supply — one-off borehole where the ground allow, tanker delivery where e no allow, and treatment or filtration almost everywhere for anything wey you go drink. Geography dey set the difficulty and the price: fresh, drillable groundwater on much of the mainland for one end, saline, treatment-dependent supply on the coastal Island and reclaimed land for the other. To read your own area water reality — borehole viability, likely quality, and whether you go lean on tanker — na as much a part of choosing where to live as the rent.