African groups demand end to water privatisation, push continental funding benchmark

From left, Martins Ogunlade, Associate Director, Climate and Environment, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA); Comrade Rufus Olusesan, National President, Precision, Electrical and Related Equipment Senior Staff Association; Zikora Ibeh, Assistant Executive Director, CAPPA; Geoffrey Occansey, Water Citizens Network / Revenue Mobilisation Africa (Ghana); and Holiness Segun Olufemi, Programme Officer, Water Campaign, CAPPA, at the joint press conference for the Africa Week of Action Against Water Privatisation in Lagos.

African civil society organisations have called on governments across the continent to reject water privatisation and establish a dedicated financing benchmark for water and sanitation, warning that commercial control of essential services is putting affordable access to water beyond the reach of poor households.

The demand was made on Monday as the Our Water, Our Right Africa Coalition (OWORAC) launched a position paper urging African governments to increase public investment in water infrastructure, strengthen public utilities and protect access to water as a human right.

The coalition made the call at the opening of the 2026 Africa Week of Action Against Water Privatisation, scheduled for October 12 to 18, under the theme, “Reclaiming Africa’s Water Future: Public Water for All.”

At the centre of its demands is a proposed continental water and sanitation financing benchmark to compel governments to make measurable budgetary commitments towards improving access to safe and affordable water.

Speaking at the launch, Holiness Segun Olufemi, Programme Officer, Water Campaign at the Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), said the African Union’s water vision could not be achieved without stronger implementation, adequate public funding and institutions capable of delivering services to all communities.

She said the coalition rejected privatisation in all its forms, including concessions, prepaid water meters, management contracts and public-private partnerships that transfer control or delivery of public water services to commercial interests.

Olufemi argued that rather than relying on private operators to address infrastructure and funding gaps, governments should strengthen public financing and protect water systems from commercial control.

To support the proposal, she cited the 2001 Abuja Declaration, which set a target of allocating 15 per cent of national budgets to health, as an example of how a common financing commitment could guide public spending.

She also referred to a UNICEF framework cited during his presentation that recommends a four to six per cent financing benchmark, arguing that a comparable mechanism could help African countries prioritise water and sanitation.

In a statement read by Geoffrey Oceansay of Ghana’s Water Citizens Network/Revenue Mobilisation Africa, OWORAC said 2.1 billion people globally lacked safely managed drinking water in 2024, while 3.4 billion lacked safely managed sanitation.

It added that 167 million people in sub-Saharan Africa relied on limited drinking-water services during the same period, accounting for more than half of the global population using services at that level.

The coalition said poor households, rural communities and underserved urban settlements bore the greatest burden, often relying on vendors, tankers, standpipes and other alternative sources when reliable public supplies were unavailable.

Citing research on urban water access in sub-Saharan Africa, it said low-income households dependent on vendors could pay between 10 and 20 times more per unit of water than wealthier households connected to public networks.

OWORAC warned that privatisation and commercial pricing could deepen this disparity, particularly where access to water increasingly depends on a household’s ability to pay.

The coalition also raised concerns about the environmental and labour implications of private-sector involvement in water, sanitation, wastewater management and solid-waste disposal, arguing that outsourcing essential services does not automatically resolve failures in infrastructure, regulation or accountability.

It called on African governments to prioritise universal access to safe, affordable and reliable water and sanitation, strengthen public utilities, disclose water-related contracts and expenditure, and guarantee the participation of communities, workers, women and young people in decisions affecting water governance.

The groups said the African Union’s designation of 2026 as the Year of “Assuring Sustainable Water Availability and Safe Sanitation Systems to Achieve the Goals of Agenda 2063,” alongside the Africa Water Vision 2063 and the 2026 United Nations Water Conference, offered an opportunity to translate continental commitments into concrete action.

The position paper was endorsed by civil society organisations from Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe and Kenya, alongside the international organisation Corporate Accountability.

The coalition maintained that Africa’s water future should be built on adequately funded public systems rather than arrangements that make access to an essential resource dependent on commercial interests.