Listen Ndlovu
Civil society organisations, community networks, youth groups, trade unions, and grassroots movements across Africa have launched the Fifth Africa Week of Action Against Water Privatisation.
Coordinated by the Our Water Our Right Africa Coalition (OWORAC), the continent-wide campaign runs from 13–18 October under the theme “Public Water for Climate Resilience.” The campaign asserts OWORAC’s central claim that water is a human right and a public good that must not be commercialised.
“The climate crisis must not be turned into a pretext for water privatisation,” said OWORAC in a statement. “Public water systems, when adequately financed and managed democratically, are the backbone of resilience. They carry the potential to plan for the long term, to extend service to marginalised communities, and to integrate social equity with environmental protection.”
The choice of theme reflects Africa’s growing vulnerability to climate change, which is increasingly being felt through droughts, floods, and unpredictable rainfall. In the Horn of Africa, prolonged droughts have left millions dependent on humanitarian aid, while catastrophic cyclones and floods in Mozambique and Nigeria have submerged wells and boreholes, worsening access to safe water and fuelling outbreaks of waterborne diseases.
Despite these challenges, the coalition notes that many governments are turning to water privatisation instead of strengthening public systems. Desalination projects often promoted as climate-proof solutions are a particular focus of concern. “Desalination is extremely energy-intensive, largely dependent on fossil fuels, and produces concentrated brine that pollutes marine ecosystems, destroys fisheries and further dispossesses coastal communities,” the statement reads. Such projects also tend to be costly, creating openings for multinational corporations to take control of systems that were once public.
The coalition pointed to Morocco’s 35-year concession with French multinational Veolia to manage what will be Africa’s largest desalination plant, warning that such agreements elsewhere have led to steep tariff increases. “In Bucharest, Romania, Veolia’s 25-year concession saw tariffs rise almost sixfold, forcing households to bear the heavy costs of privatisation,” OWORAC noted.
In Zimbabwe, Voices for Water, an OWORAC member, is circulating an online petition urging the government to suspend its January 2025 directive to privatise water in all urban areas. The group argues that such a move would deepen inequality, limit access for low-income households, and undermine the constitutional right to water.
Instead of privatisation, OWORAC calls for stronger public investment in climate-resilient water systems. The coalition advocates for renewable energy integration, watershed and wetland restoration, participatory governance, and incorporation of indigenous water and management practices. “Climate resilience will not be delivered through privatisation schemes that entrench inequality and exclusion,” the statement reads. “It will only be built through strong, transparent and publicly accountable systems that protect water as a common good and guarantee access for all.”
Throughout the week, OWORAC and its allies will coordinate events to expose the harms of privatisation and showcase alternatives rooted in equitable, publicly governed water systems. The coalition urges governments to prioritise human need over profit and calls on international institutions to stop tying loan conditions to privatisation.
OWORAC concludes that Africa’s water must remain in public hands, managed for people, and not for profit. “Water is life,” the coalition affirms, “and life must never be for sale.”
