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Africa Conference on the Right to Water

The first annual international water conference took place May 12-15, 2003, in Accra, Ghana, and was designed as a forum to share skills and build alliances to protect water as a human right. Entitled "Securing the Right to Water in Africa," the conference setting was ideal because Ghana has played a leadership role in challenging the World Bank’s water privatization project, successfully delaying the plan for two years running. . The project is now being revived and pushed into high gear by the World Bank. Ghana is viewed as a key showcase African country and the project is seen as key to pushing forward the Millennium Development Goals. This conference called attention to the government’s plans in Ghana in July 2003 to call for full bids from four pre-qualified multinational water companies to lease Ghana’s urban water system despite a visible country-wide opposition.

The conference was organized and sponsored by the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC). Working closely with the Ghana National Coalition Against Privatization of Water (NCAP), the Ghana-based citizens groups encouraged world-wide attendance for the conference. Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program, was one of the featured speakers.

The forum presented a framework for analysis, including information about the nature of the political and commercial forces driving policies; the role of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the European Union, and others in promoting "private-public partnerships." They discussed whether public-private partnerships can serve the public interest or whether, in their desperation to reduce their debt and obtain finance, governments are relinquishing control over the resources and services most essential for health, livelihood and dignity.

The forum highlighted country experiences and campaigns. These experiences will hopefully facilitate the building of alliances and the design of strategies for analysis and activism. Citizens in many countries -- Ghana, Nicaragua, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Bolivia, Senegal, South Africa, Brazil, the Philippines, Indonesia as well as the U.K, Canada, and the U.S. – are challenging attempts to indiscriminately privatize services.

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