Africa Intelligence reports on a conflict over water between the World Bank and the government of Cameroon. The World Bank is calling for the price of a cubic meter of drinking water to be raised to 270 FCFA (0.42 US$). This has been rejected by the government of Cameroon, “which doesn’t want to provoke a fresh wave of social unrest”.
Update January 15: Press Release by Camwater
There is no power struggle between Camwater (Cameroon Water Utilities) and the World Bank. On the contrary, the World Bank is supporting Camwater in its structural reforms, in particular through two projects for which the financing principles are currently being finalised…’. These are the words of the public company in charge of the management of drinking water in Cameroon, in a press release dated 14 January 2025. The company, headed by Blaise Moussa, is responding to an article in the confidential publication Africa Intelligence, published in the early hours of 14 January.
After pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to reduce fuel subsidies, it is now the World Bank’s turn to ask the Cameroonian government to increase the price of a cubic metre of water to CFAF 270. The price increase is included in the 2025-2029 strategic development plan of the Cameroon Water Utilities (Camwater). But the company’s managing director, Blaise Moussa, and the Minister of Water and Energy, Gaston Eloundou Essomba, have refused to accept the Bretton Woods institution’s request (…) Against the background of a sharp rise in the cost of basic necessities since the outbreak of war in Ukraine, and in the middle of an election year, the Cameroonian government does not want to open a new front of social protest,’ the article states.
There will be no increase in Camwater’s water tariffs in the short term (2025-2026). In the event of an increase in tariffs in the medium term, as provided for in Camwater’s strategic plan from 2027, this will be done under the auspices of the government, in strict compliance with the legal procedures in force, and will be preceded by joint consultations with all the stakeholders concerned,’ Camwater replied in its above-mentioned press release.
“If you look at Cameroon’s development strategy for 2025-2029, you will see that the increase in tariffs is included. The World Bank did not work on this document,”‘” stresses an authorised source at the Bretton Woods institution’s offices in Yaoundé.
Furthermore, the concessionaire in the Cameroonian drinking water sector, described by Africa Intelligence as a ‘chronically loss-making public company’, announces that it has ‘closed its accounts for the financial year 2023 with a significant improvement in results’ of just over 4 billion FCFA.
