Protecting Life: African Water Activists Resist Corporate Privatisation As World Bank Meets

At a time when life is more precarious than ever, the necessity to prioritise that which gives life is likewise greater than ever. Water is one of the most fundamental necessities for life, yet giant corporations backed by international financial institutions are exploiting this basic need by trying to privatise water across the African continent, threatening to leave millions of people suffering without water.

The only just path forward is by rejecting privatisation and returning water into the hands of the African people, who together have and will continue to advance public water solutions funded by public dollars. On October 13, 2021 at 9am ET, African water protectors will be speaking about these efforts and making demands for change here.

Private water giants like Veolia and Suez have been capturing Africa’s water systems for decades with the backing of institutions like the World Bank, undermining African governments’ efforts to ensure universal water access for their people. Right now the World Bank, one of the largest drivers of water privatisation in the Global South, is holding its annual meetings. Worse, Veolia and Suez, the two largest private water corporations in the world, are on the cusp of a mega-merger that would consolidate their control and further threaten the African people’s right to water systems that ensure true public health and equity. All this shows that the threat of corporate control of water for generations to come is becoming increasingly dire.

“This mobilization is the convergence of all the resistance struggles against water privatisation by the Our Water Our Right Africa Coalition,” said Akinbode Oluwafemi, Executive Director of Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa. “We are sending a clear and unequivocal message to the drivers of privatisation and their allies: Africans from East, West, Central and Southern Africa are united in their position that control of Africa’s water today and in the future must be determined by Africans and Africans alone.”

Frontline communities and workers across the African continent have long held the expertise needed to ensure that everyone has access to water and, by extension, life. In order for their leadership to thrive, movement leaders are demanding African governments listen to water protectors, ignore pressures from the World Bank and other institutions to privatise water, and reject all privatisation schemes from profit-driven behemoths like Veolia and Suez. Organisers say that government leaders must invest in public water systems that include meaningful public participation in water governance, with particular focus on the perspectives of those typically left out of decision-making processes, including but not limited to women, low-income people, and rural communities.

These demands build on the momentum of the water justice movement, which has already achieved over 300 cases of water de-privatisation around the world, including in cities such as Paris, the home of Veolia and Suez.

Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa encourages all stakeholders to hear directly from the following African water protectors and allies:

• Akinbode Oluwafemi from Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa will share highlights from the forthcoming report, Africa Must Rise & Resist Water Privatisation (due to be released October 13) and talk about how civil society and labour are banding together across Africa to reject privatisation.

• Dr. Everline Aketch from Public Services International will talk about the impacts of water privatisation on workers and the role of labour in the water justice movement.

• Dr. Melina Abdullah from Black Lives Matter Grassroots will locate the struggle for water justice in Africa within the context of struggles for Black liberation around the globe.

• Younoussa Abbosouka and Oumar Ba will talk about their experiences fighting water privatisation and injustice in Cameroon and Senegal, as well as the power of organising.

This event will be moderated by Aderonke Ige, Associate Director at Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa.

Please join us on October 13, 2021 at 9am ET here.

Speakers and key contacts related to this event are available for additional questions or comments upon request.