African Leaders Urged To Reject Water Privatisation, Strengthen Local Institutions

In the face of growing threats to water, African leaders have been urged to stand in defence of the right to water by emphatically rejecting water privatisation schemes.

Civil society and trade unionists, under the aegis of Our Water, Our Right Africa Coalition (OWORAC) made the call at the third annual Africa Week of Action Against Water Privatisation through grassroots community sensitisation and stakeholder engagement in Lagos on Monday.

The executive director, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa and a member of the OWORAC, Akinbode Oluwafemi, averred that water is not a commodity to be traded, bartered or sold to the highest bidder, even as he advocated that the rich countries of the global North must stop funding neocolonial commodification practices in global South countries, especially in Africa, disguised as benevolent development aid and interventions.

He stated that the capitalist pillage of Africa’s waters, masquerading as innovative solutions, is a crime against the people and is unacceptable.

On his part, Public Services International’s regional secretary for Africa and Arab Countries, Sani Baba Mohammed, said corporate greed has turned Africa’s water into blue mines, deepening inequalities and leaving communities parched, even when surrounded by an abundance that is rightfully theirs.

“This is the shameful failure of market-centric water management approaches. Only community-driven solutions rooted in democratic decision-making and control of water resources for public good can guarantee water access, equality, accountability and security of jobs,” Mohammed posited.

Recall that the privatisation of water in some African countries by multinationals such as Veolia and Suez failed due to unaffordable water tariffs to labour abuses.

Despite this, subregional secretary for English-speaking Africa for Public Services International, Everline Akech, averred that international institutions led by the World Bank and Global North agencies, continue to use their power and influence to steer African governments towards this false solution.

“Commodification of water in Africa will come at a huge price and that price will be paid by communities whose access to water will be severely restricted. Women who will not be able to afford the huge costs and will have to seek unwholesome alternatives and also children who will be severely dehydrated from unquenchable thirst,” Akech stated.

In the face of these challenges, the coalition, however, insisted that the democratic and inclusive management of Africa’s water resources and systems is non-negotiable.

“We reject the commodification of this essential life source and speak in United voices that the right and access to water for every African is not for sale,” they agreed.