Governments across the African continent have been urged to establish dedicated budgetary benchmarks for water provision and protect public water systems from privatisation to ensure access to safe and affordable water.
The call was made during the Africa Week of Action Against Water Privatisation 2026, with the theme: “Reclaiming Africa’s Water Future: Public Water for All,” where the Our Water, Our Rights Africa Coalition (OWORAC) unveiled a position paper advocating stronger public financing and accountability in the water sector.
Assistant Executive Director of Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), Zikora Ibeh, said governments must recognise water as a social good and ensure its provision does not depend solely on people’s ability to pay.
Ibeh argued that commercial control of water could place profit above public welfare and urged governments to reduce wasteful expenditure and tackle illicit financial flows to generate resources for water services.
She said such resources could help provide free water to highly vulnerable people and make it affordable for middle-income earners and wealthier households.
On his part, Executive Director of Revenue Mobilization Africa and Chairperson of the Water Citizens Network in Ghana, Geoffrey Occansey also urged African governments to prioritise the interests of citizens who elected them into office.
Occansey called on governments to avoid water privatisation, cut unnecessary expenditure and curb illicit financial flows that drain national revenue.
He said resources recovered through these measures should be consolidated and channelled into water provision, with free access for vulnerable populations and affordable rates for middle-income earners and the wealthy.
Also speaking, programme officer on Water Campaign at CAPPA, Holiness Segun-Olufemi, said OWORAC’s position paper proposes a continental financing benchmark and monitoring framework to guide government spending on water.
She called for a guaranteed minimum level of water access for everyone, regardless of their ability to pay, alongside stronger public financing and accountability mechanisms.
The coalition’s campaign comes as the African Union already designated 2026 as the Year of “Assuring Sustainable Water Availability and Safe Sanitation Systems to Achieve the Goals of Agenda 2063”, alongside the launch of the Africa Water Vision 2063 and Policy.
At the global level, the 2026 United Nations Water Conference also provides an important platform for advancing commitments on water and sanitation.