Nigeria's Dual Challenge Of Water Access And Plastic Pollution

(MENAFN- APO Group)

Across West Africa, a small plastic pouch can carry a contradiction. For millions of people, it signifies affordable drinking water when reliable taps are unavailable. For cities and their infrastructure, it's an additional single-use plastic entering an already strained waste management system. While so-called“water sachets” keep people hydrated every day, they also contribute to one of the region's most visible forms of plastic pollution.

Water sachets are heat-sealed polyethylene pouches that are filled with purified drinking water. These pouches respond to more than 845 million people across sub-Saharan Africa still lacking safely managed drinking water. They're small and malleable, yet strong enough to easily be carried around, sold cheaply and consumed on the move.

The production of water sachets only requires basic equipment and a relatively low investment, and so they have proven a viable business opportunity for private and informal producers that can step in to fill the gap where public water systems have not kept pace with urban growth. The distribution of drinking water is also a crucial source of employment, particularly for youth.

As such, water sachets are not only a waste problem; they reflect broader economic and environmental issues. This intersectional systems challenge is being explored through PlasticReboot, an Integrated Program funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) that seeks to advance circular solutions to plastic pollution across 15 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. The programme focuses on upstream and midstream interventions in the food and beverage sector to reduce plastic pollution at its source.

Nigeria launched its national Plastic Reboot project on 27 January 2026, implemented by Nigeria's National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) with support from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The national project will bring together policymakers, industry leaders and other stakeholders to pilot functional alternatives and viable business models that can replace water sachets in the long run, while ensuring access to safe drinking water. According to Innocent Barikor, Director General of the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), what is needed is“innovation that makes Nigerians feel like they lost nothing” – in other words, something that is more circular and sustainable without compromising affordability, convenience and familiarity.

Nigeria is home to more than 237 million people, many of whom lack reliable access to piped drinking water. Water sachets, colloquially known as“pure water,” have become part of daily life, sold by shops, street vendors and informal distributors across cities and towns. Today, it is estimated that 70 per cent of Nigerians consume at least one sachet every day, amounting to over 60 million sachets consumed daily.

Behind the sachets is a powerful single-use plastics economy, both formal and informal. The rapid expansion of plastic packaging has outpaced waste management systems in rapidly growing cities like Abuja. Informal plastic collection networks and recycling initiatives play an important role in recovering valuable materials, but low-value plastics such as water sachets can fall outside these systems. Souleymane Adana, General Secretary of the Waste Pickers Association of Nigeria, explained that waste pickers collect materials such as PET bottles, paper and metals because they have market value.“We have not been doing much [with] pure water sachets, because [there are no] off takers for them,” he said.

Uncollected water sachets contribute to widespread plastic leakage into the environment, which can also pose human health risks. They clog drainage systems, often contributing to floods during heavy rains and the spread of mosquito-borne diseases.

Banning or replacing sachets without affordable alternatives risks undermining livelihoods and access to safe drinking water Continuing with business-as-usual means accepting a growing stream of plastic waste that cities and the environment are not equipped to manage.

One of the ways by which Nigeria is trying to respond to the challenge is through Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). In addition to implementing Plastic Reboot Nigeria, UNEP has also provided technical inputs to the National Guidelines for the Implementation of Extended Producer Responsibility for Plastic Packaging (established by NESREA) to support the transition toward a circular systems transformation. Key partners have been financing UNEP's efforts in Nigeria, including the Government of Japan and the Norwegian Retailers' Environment Fund.

Supporting the circularity of plastic packaging in Nigeria, Plastic Reboot is helping identify alternative materials and new business models that could reduce reliance on water sachets while maintaining access to affordable drinking water. The lessons emerging from Nigeria may also be relevant across West Africa, including in Burkina Faso and Senegal, where Plastic Reboot is also being implemented.

“The question is not only how to reduce plastic waste,” said Evelyn Swain, Senior Environmental Specialist at the GEF Secretariat.“It is also how to do so in a way that protects the services people depend on every day. Sachet water shows why plastic pollution has to be addressed through systems change.”

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

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