African governments have been called upon to invest more in the provision of water to the citizens.

At an international press briefing against water privatisation in Africa, organised by Our Water Our Right Africa Coalition (OWORAC), in Lagos, yesterday, activists and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) across Africa and beyond asserted that if governments would invest more in water, there would be no need for Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in the sector.

The briefing is part of events to mark Africa Water Week 2024, with the theme, ‘Water Justice over Profit’. Water activists christened it Africa Week of Action/Resistance.

Among others, OWORAC demanded a halt to all water privatisation or PPP arrangements across the continent; an increment in government funding/ investments in the water sector; a 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 and promotion of good governance and eliminate corruption.

The Executive Director of CAPPA, Akinbode Oluwafemi, in his opening remarks, stated: “The Week of resistance is marked to coincide with the yearly 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.”

According to him, some of the causes of water infrastructure decay are bad governance and corruption, which must be removed from the system.

From outside Africa, the Water Campaign Director, Corporate Accountability, United States of America, Neil Gupta, expressed solidarity with those resisting water privatisation in Africa.

He described water privatisation as a form of capitalism, which placed profit above the common good, adding: “Water privatisation is an attempt to subvert the people’s will.”

Fatou Diouf from Senegal, Leonard Shang-Quartey from Ghana, Pascal Bekono from Cameroon, Anne Maine from Kenya, among others, testified that their respective countries were also having water privatisation issues.

Diouf and Shang-Quartey urged the media and fellow activists to continue piling pressure on governments to drop the idea of water privatisation and rather invest tax-payers money in the water sector.

In his closing remarks, CAPPA Community Mobiliser, Dr Gideon Adeyemi, said water must remain accessible and nobody should be denied access to water.

He added: “For water justice, we all should keep on with the anti-privatisation campaign.”