.By Eberechi Obinagwam
Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has restated its opposition to water privatisation in Nigeria, Africa and across the globe.
CAPPA is also demanding equitable water access across Africa, increase government funding and investments in the water sector, participatory approach to water governance and governments’ commitment to public solutions to the continent’s water challenges, expanded outlook on water justice beyond access to include affordability and quality, etc.
At a press conference in Lagos to mark the commencement of the fourth annual Africa Week of Action Against Water Privatisation, CAPPA’s executive director, Oluwafemi Akinbode, hailed the initiative of Our Water Our Right Africa Coalition (OWORAC) in championing resistance to corporate take-over of water utilities across Africa.
According to him, the week of resistance is marked to coincide with the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to draw attention and needed action to those institutions’ roles in pushing water privatisation agenda on our continent.
“For us, our campaign on water is Rights Based. Water is life and it must be protected from corporate greed. This is further reinforced by the many cases of failed water privatisation across the globe,” he said.
He said there are over 180 cities and communities in 35 countries, including Buenos Aires, Johannesburg, Paris, Accra, Berlin, La Paz, Maputo and Kuala Lumpur, that have “re-municipalised” their water utilities after failed privatization or PPP misadventure. “Among them, more than 100 are in the United States and France, 14 in Africa and 12 in Latin America.
“So this week activist in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, Cameroun among others will be organising community events, water parliaments, protests and walks again to resist water privatisation agenda.”
He said in Nigeria, activities will be held in Enugu, Abuja, Oyo, Adamawa, and Lagos States.
Sefa Ikpa, programme officer Water Campaign at CAPPA, while delivering a text for the week on Water Justice Over Profit said the neocolonial forces of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have been bearing down on the African continent for decades, entrapping states in debt and using this leverage to push anti-people policies which have undermined public welfare and environmental stewardship.
“Bilateral development agencies, such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), have also begun to exert pressure on states to adopt policies, to the detriment of communities. The privatisation of essential services, especially water systems, is promoted by these insitutions despite the widespread public opposition and ample evidence of its failure both globally and on the continent itself.
“Among these failures are the rising cost of water service, the jeopardised livelihoods and workplace safety of public sector workers, and the deterioration of infrastructure, which the state must ultimately pay for. It is evident that water privatisation schemes are a detriment to the community, the workers, and the state itself. So, we ask, who benefits from this callous commercialisation? Large multinational corporations, such as Veolia and Suez, and the shareholders they serve are the primary beneficiaries of corporate control schemes like privatisation and so-called public-private partnerships (PPP), which extract resources from the continent and funnel them into foreign bank accounts.
“Across the African continent, communities face a variety of assaults on their human right to water from corporations and their backers.
“In Nigeria, bilateral agencies and international organisations such as USAID, WaterAid, the UK’s FCDO, the Africa Development Bank (AfDB), and the Global Water Partnership, among others, have promoted water privatisation ventures. Particularly, support for privatisation schemes. And influence on water authorities in Lagos State has been connected to the sacking of hundreds of unionised workers in recent times and this is steering the megacity towards privatisation of the water service.”
She also stated that in Ghana, unchecked corporate negligence, reckless extractivism, and mining (galamsey) are catalysts for widespread water contamination and dangerous levels of pollution in local rivers, while in Senegal, French private water multinational, Suez, has taken control of Senegal’s water system through its management of Sen’Eau, to the detriment of workers facing abysmal working conditions and communities who are now dealing with skyrocketing water bills and unreliable service.
It further states that, the recently-adopted Water Amendment Act in Kenya has created the conditions for increasingly unaffordable water services and pathways for privatisation schemes like publicprivate partnerships to hand over control of water systems to corporations.
“Mozambique faces the threat of a national utility privatisation scheme that would impact communities in all corners of the country. And while privatisers have been kicked out of Cameroon and Gabon over the years, the spectre of privatisation and inequitable water access still looms large. Since the end of water privatisation in Cameroon in 2018, potable water distribution is temporarily under control.
But, so many preoccupations still persist, notably the fragile financial situation of the body that is in charge of managing and distributing water in the country, CamWater. “
Ron Daniels, president, institute of Black World ( IBW) pledging his support said access to clean water is a fundamental human right, “We don’t believe that there should be water privatisation anywhere in the world. We are working together to protect each other to build a global submit that will deal with water privatisation.”
Also, Oumar Ba, Confederation of Autonomous Trade Unions of Senegal said that access to water has been difficult and it’s becoming difficult since 1996 it was priviatised in Senegal, adding that all the profits are funneled abroad while the government loses.