OWORAC, UN expert, other campaigners reject World Bank/IMF water privatisation push in Africa
The Our Water Our Right Africa Coalition (OWORAC), a pan-African movement against the commodification of water, has rejected a global push for water privatization across the continent. At a press conference in Lagos held on Monday October 13, OWORAC said water is a public good and a human right which must never be surrendered to the logic of profit.
The IMF and World Bank have been pushing for the privatization of water in the form of public-private partnerships (PPPs). But OWORAC says the PPP scheme is a deceptive way of using public funds to support private interests which will eventually lead to deprivation of water to the poor.
A statement signed on behalf of OWORAC by public water campaigners in Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Senegal, Cameroon, Kenya, USA, and Zimbabwe, and read by Sefa Ikpa, programme officer at CAPPA, warned against transferring public water systems to private enterprise.
