Climate Crisis No Justification For Water Privatisation – OWORAC Warns On World Water Day
As the world commemorates World Water Day 2025, the Our Water Our Right Africa Coalition (OWORAC) has sounded the alarm on a growing threat to Africa’s most vital resource -water.
The coalition has urged African governments to resist what it describes as a dangerous trend of using the climate crisis as a cover for the privatisation of public water systems.
In a statement released Friday, OWORAC condemned attempts to position water privatisation as a climate adaptation strategy, warning that commodifying water undercuts the human right to safe, accessible water for all.
“This year’s theme, ‘Glacier Preservation,’ shines a spotlight on the escalating impact of climate change on the world’s freshwater reserves.
However, let us be clear— the climate emergency must not become an excuse to hand over Africa’s water to corporations,” the coalition declared.
Citing rising global temperatures driven by unsustainable extraction and unchecked corporate emissions, OWORAC stressed that Africa’s water supply is already buckling under the weight of climate pressures.
Introducing profit-driven management, it argued, will only amplify inequalities and further limit access for vulnerable populations.
“With over 1.3 billion Africans facing water insecurity daily, we are nearing a breaking point.
Glaciers feeding our rivers and sustaining ecosystems are melting at alarming rates. From Mount Kilimanjaro and the Rwenzori Mountains to Mount Kenya, these disappearing glaciers threaten to deepen droughts, food crises, and water shortages across the continent,” the coalition warned.
OWORAC made it clear that water scarcity and privatisation are intertwined challenges. “The melting glaciers of Africa are giving way to a flood of corporate interests.
As freshwater grows scarcer, corporations and financial institutions are circling, eager to turn this crisis into a market opportunity,” the statement noted.
The coalition specifically criticised the rise of public-private partnerships (PPPs), water concessions, and bulk water purchase agreements, describing them as vehicles for corporate control.
Such arrangements, they said, have led to higher water tariffs, weakened public oversight, and widespread water disconnections; leaving countless people without life’s most basic necessity.
“Privatisation is not a climate solution,” OWORAC emphasised. “If climate change is threatening our water, then governments must urgently invest in expanding and strengthening public water systems and not auction them off.”
The coalition described the push for private sector dominance in the water sector as “deeply flawed and shortsighted,” arguing that private corporations driven by profit and shareholder value cannot meet the public’s need for equitable and sustainable water access.
“Corporations prioritise profits; public water systems prioritise people,” the statement read. “This is not the time to entrench the very market forces that have contributed to the climate crisis.”
OWORAC also pointed to the failure of past water privatisation experiments in countries like Senegal, Kenya, Ghana, Cameroon, Mozambique, Gabon, and Tanzania, where market-based water models worsened access and disproportionately harmed marginalised communities.
“The evidence is clear: market-driven models deepen crises, they do not solve them. In fact, they often create new layers of exclusion and hardship,” the coalition said.
OWORAC however, called for massive public investment in climate-resilient water infrastructure, community-centred water governance, and robust legislation to shield public water services from corporate capture under the guise of climate adaptation.
The coalition urged African governments, regional blocs, and international bodies to reject all forms of water privatisation and instead embrace public, people-centred solutions.
“We demand that governments and global financial institutions stop imposing privatisation as a condition for water sector financing. Instead, they must invest in publicly owned and publicly managed systems that serve people over profits,” the statement concluded.
“Glaciers are melting, but our resistance holds firm. The climate crisis must not become a license to privatise Africa’s lifeblood. Water belongs to the people—not the market.”
The statement was signed by a number of Civil Society Organisations including:
SYNATEEC Trade Union, Cameroon
African Centre for Policy and Advocacy, Cameroon
Biodiversity and Biosafety Association, Kenya
Confédération de Syndicats Autonomes du Sénégal
Senegal Water Justice Network, Senegal
Water Citizens Network, Ghana
Revenue Mobilization Africa, Ghana
Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA)
Corporate Accountability, USA
