Analysing Governance Failures and Service Delivery Collapse in Urban Water Supply in Nigeria: Case Studies of Kaduna and Enugu State Water Authorities

This study analyses governance failures in urban water supply systems and their relationship to service delivery collapse, drawing comparative case evidence from the Kaduna State Water Corporation and the Enugu State Water Corporation. Nigeria's urban water utilities are among the most chronically underperforming public enterprises in the country, with the majority of urban households resorting to expensive private vending, borehole systems, and tanker water as primary sources. Drawing on public enterprise governance theory and recent urban water governance literature from 2019 to 2024, the study employs a comparative case study research design. Primary data are gathered from water authority management staff, state Ministry of Water Resources officials, water sector regulators, and urban household users through semi-structured interviews and structured service experience questionnaires across the two states. Secondary data include utility financial statements, capital investment records, and customer service complaint logs. Cross-case thematic analysis is applied. The study expects to find common governance failures across both utilities including chronic tariff under-recovery, political interference in management appointments, capital investment starvation, non-revenue water above 50 percent, and absent customer accountability frameworks, while also identifying context-specific governance factors in each state. The study contributes comparative analytical insights to Nigeria's urban water governance reform debate and recommends a structured utility transformation programme anchored in independent regulation and ring-fenced tariff revenue. Keywords: water governance, service delivery, urban water supply, Kaduna State, Enugu State