Water activists across the African continent: a view from the field.

• Author: O'Callaghan, Darcey

1. The Africa Water Network

   As a senior policy advocate at Food & Water Watch, I am responsible for coordinating all of our work in Africa. Two years ago, we helped launch the Africa Water Network at the 2007 World Social Forum in Nairobi. While there are many nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working in water and sanitation across the continent, the AWN is unique in that its work focuses on the question, "Who owns water?"

   Water is increasingly being referred to as the "oil of the 21st century" or "blue gold." The triple threat of an increasing global population, a growing middle class that consumes more water and a shrinking supply of fresh water has led to wider public knowledge and several important trends. First, in the endless search for higher profit margins, the private sector has identified an opportunity to not only enter the market, but to set precedent regarding the way water is perceived. The industry spends significant resources trying to convince consumers that water is a commodity for which people must pay market prices. Under the assumption that the private sector would increase the efficiency of management and delivery, the World Bank and other financial institutions have aided private-sector goals by making debt relief and loans conditional on private-sector involvement. However, private-sector efficiency is intrinsically tied to competition, and because water is a natural monopoly, subjecting it to the market will not bring the efficiency and downward pressure on prices that would typically be expected.

   Second, we are seeing a widening chasm between the way urban and rural water systems are managed. Multinational corporations compete to sign five- to 30-year management contracts in urban areas where population density allows them to earn a profit. They have no interest in rural areas where too much infrastructure outlay would be required. In Tanzania, for example, while Biwater won a contract to deliver water services in Dar es Salaam, rural water provision was left to NGOs. Urban dwellers are stated soon to outnumber rural dwellers worldwide. In fact, UN Habitat says that the "urbanization of poverty" has been ignored because aid agencies have traditionally focused on rural areas. Regions need to develop integrated, sustainable management plans around watersheds that emphasize conservation and include both urban and rural water provision.

   Corporations have used the freshwater crisis to propose that they are more efficient than publicly managed systems. It is now well known that agriculture uses 70% of global freshwater supplies, so while cost recovery proponents claim that higher urban tariffs will encourage conservation, any significant efficiencies would come from implementation in the agricultural sector. The world has seen one scandal after another where multinationals have not just failed, but left a huge mess behind--Cochabamba, Bolivia; Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; and Atlanta, Georgia, to name just a few. Even as multinationals point to some examples that they consider successful, profits are still exported, local and national sovereignty is still sacrificed, and transparency is still reduced. Better models exist.

   So it was with this contextual backdrop that water activists at the Nairobi World Social Forum shared similar stories of increasing prices, poor quality and access, lack of community consultation and the encroaching threat of privatisation. Based on these common concerns, the AWN developed five core principles:

   * To fight against privatisation and commercialisation of water

   * To halt installation of pre-paid meters

   ...