Activists, Experts Reject Water Privatisation

A civilian nine Organisation, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), alongside grassroots movements, planetary allies, and civilian nine leaders, person said h2o privatisation is against quality dignity.

Fifth Africa Week of Action Against Water Privatisation, with beardown condemnations of firm power implicit h2o governance successful Nigeria and crossed Africa.

The week-long campaign, organised by Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa, Our Water Our Right Africa Coalition (OWORAC), successful collaboration with the Make Big Polluters Pay (MBPP) Coalition, reinforced a increasing continental demand: that h2o indispensable stay a nationalist good, not a commodity for profit.

Speaking astatine the event’s opening, Akinbode Olufemi, Executive Director of Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), warned that h2o privatisation successful the discourse of the clime situation compounds vulnerability and institutionalised inequality.

He declared that water, arsenic a cardinal quality right, cannot and indispensable not beryllium turned into a commodity, pointing retired that the conflict for nationalist h2o is besides a combat for clime justness and antiauthoritarian governance.

The 2025 observance marks the archetypal clip OWORAC is partnering with MBPP, a pan-African conjugation focused connected firm accountability for biology harm.

Oluwafemi described the confederation arsenic a indispensable evolution, arsenic it highlights the deepening designation that h2o justness and clime justness are inseparable.

He emphasised the week’s theme, Public Water for Climate Resilience, arsenic a captious effect to the worsening clime conditions that disproportionately impact African communities.

According to him, the information of the United Nations Special Rapporteur connected quality rights, Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, is to guarantee harmless drinking h2o and sanitation, and adds a planetary value to the event.

Oluwafemi praised Arrojo-Agudo’s relation successful illuminating the dangers of h2o privatisation portion advocating for democratic, climate-resilient alternatives. The Special Rapporteur’s beingness noted that the request for nationalist h2o is simply a cosmopolitan quality rights issue.”

He said, “There should beryllium a rejection of mendacious clime solutions, and put successful transparent, ecologically dependable nationalist h2o systems. This is not conscionable astir h2o but astir dignity, survival, and justice. Water indispensable stay successful nationalist hands for the people, not for profit”

Speaking connected behalf of OWORAC, CAPPA’s Programme Officer, Water Campaign, Sefa Ikpa, reiterated the coalition’s presumption that the clime situation is being manipulated to warrant profit-driven solutions specified arsenic desalination plants.

“These schemes are ecologically harmful, carbon-intensive, and expensive, enabling multinational corporations to predominate African h2o systems, arsenic seen successful Morocco’s 35-year woody with Veolia.

CAPPA’s Assistant Executive Director, Zikorah Ibeh, sharply criticised the Lagos State government’s handling of h2o privatisation deals, accusing it of deliberate secrecy and exclusion of section voices.