May 31, 2001
Express your solidarity! Show your support for the struggle to stop the
worldwide attempt to commodify water for the profit and benefit of a few.
Forward this message to others and then please take the following actions:
· Sign-on to the Accra Declaration. Send your name and organizational
affiliation to [email protected]
· Write, fax or e-mail messages to the following people and tell them to:
Please stop the process toward privatisation of water services until
the people of Ghana have an opportunity to debate and discuss a wide range
of water management options, including ommunity/public
partnerships.
1. His Excellency Mr. J.A. Kufuor
Office of the President of Ghana
Tel.: 233-21-676923/4 ext. 110
Fax: 233-21-676934
233-21-666528
2. Honorable Mr. Kwamena Bartel
Minister of Works and Housing
Address: Ministry of Works and Housing
P. O. Box M27 - Ministries
Accra
Tel: 233-21-665323
Fax: 233-21-663268
Email: [email protected]
3. Mr. Peter Harrold
World Bank Resident Representative, Ghana
P. O. Box M27 - Ministries
Accra
Tel: 233-724/22037
Fax: 233-72-227887
Email: [email protected]
4. Trade Union Congress (TUC)
Secretary General
P. O. Box 701
Accra
Tel: 233-21-62568 or 669675
Fax: 233-21-763920
Email: [email protected]
5. Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ)
Old Parliament House
Accra
Tel: 233-21-662568 or 669675
Fax: 233-21-667161
6. Speaker of the Parliament
The Speaker
Parliament House
Accra
Tel. 233-21-668514
Email: [email protected]
Thank you very much and please send a copy of all your messages to the
Ghana National Coalition Against the Privatisation of Water (National
CAP of Water) at:
Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC)
P.O. Box 19452
Accra North, Ghana
Email: [email protected] or [email protected]
Fax: 233/21 311687
Tel: 233/21 30606
Sincerely,
International Solidarity Committee
for the National CAP of Water
****************
THE ACCRA DECLARATION ON THE RIGHT TO WATER
19th May, 2001
At the end of 4 days of debate during the National Forum on Water
Privatization in Accra, Ghana, which took place between the 16-19th of May,
we the undersigned declare as follows:
We are a diverse group of individuals and organizations drawn from various
parts of the country, and from other parts of Africa, Europe and the United
States; involved in the private, public and voluntary sectors and working at
varying levels of society.
We are united by the following common principles, beliefs and values:
That water is a fundamental human right, essential to human life to which
every person, rich or poor, man or woman, child or adult is entitled.
That water is not and should not be a common commodity to be bought and sold
in the market place as an economic good.
Water is a natural resource that is part of our common heritage to be used
judiciously and preserved for the common good of our societies and the
natural environment today and in the future.
Water is an increasingly scarce natural resource, and as a result crucial to
the securities of our societies and sovereignty of our country. For this
reason alone, its ownership, control, delivery and management belong in the
public domain today and tomorrow.
The public sector is legally and constitutionally mandated and designed to
represent the public interest. The essential purpose of the private sector
on the other hand is to make profit not to promote the public good. Any
public benefits arising from the private sector's activities are incidental
not designed. As a result, the private sector cannot be trusted with the
public interest.
Citizens have the right to effectively participate (as distinguished from
being informed) in the shaping of public policies which fundamentally affect
their lives such as the control of water, and that government has a
responsibility to enforce this right.
Community participation in the management of water systems is
valid/legitimate, essential and beneficial to the overall effectiveness in
affordable and sustainable water delivery.
Water management policies should be designed to ensure social equity such as
gender equity, public health and environmental equity.
Guided by the above stated principles, we commit to:
Forming and promoting a Ghana National Coalition Against the Privatization
of Water herein called "The Ghana National CAP of Water" which will be a
broad coalition of individuals and organisations committed to the above
principles and to the following objectives:
To conduct a broad-based campaign to ensure that all Ghanaians have access
to adequate and affordable portable water by the year 2010.
To ensure that the right to water is explicitly guaranteed under the
Constitution of the Republic of Ghana.
To ensure that the ownership, control and management of water services
remain in public hands.
To promote public awareness and debate about the privatization process.
To promote alternative solutions to the problems militating against
universal access to water including problems of public management
efficiency.
We recognize:
The important role that the local private business sector can play, and
should play, in partnership with communities, Ghanaian artisans and experts
and local government in ensuring efficient and effective supply of water
services.
The inability of the Ghana Water Company Ltd (formerly Ghana Water and
Sewerage Corporation) over the years to provide efficient and effective
services resulting in public frustrations and some loss of faith in the
company. However these perceived and real failures can only be appropriately
understood within the context of the broader failure of governance and
democracy over the years encompassing a wide range of institutions including
the security services, the judiciary and many more. It is unlikely that the
acceptable solution for the failures of these institutions will be to
privatize them.
The severe shortage of investment in the water sector required to deliver
adequate and affordable water to all. Whilst the severity of this resource
problem is itself debatable, it has nevertheless led to solutions resulting
in heavy dependency on foreign creditors (especially the World Bank) which
has in turn compelled the country to accept rigid conditionalities that have
limited our options for financing and reforming the water sector.
We recognize the close link between access to water and improved public
health in view of the fact that nearly 70% of all diseases in Ghana are
currently water related.
We reject:
· The view that privatization (the participation of foreign
transnational corporations) is the appropriate solution to the problems
bedeviling our water sector.
· The view that "to be private is to be efficient, and to be public
is to be inefficient"
· The view that the public sector, in this case the GWC Ltd, is
incapable of being reformed to deliver water services efficiently and
effectively to all.
· The view that the participation of communities in the management of
urban water supply is not feasible and cannot be efficient.
· The commodification of water.
· Efficiency solutions which result in the violation of social and
environmental rights and justice such as the rights of workers, women,
children and the preservation of the natural environment.
· The World Bank imposed policy of charging rural and small town
communities an upfront contribution to capital cost. This policy
discriminates against rural and small town dwellers as it does not apply to
those who reside in large cities. The policy has also resulted in excluding
poor communities incapable of paying from enjoying their right to consume
portable water.
We call upon:
The Government of Ghana:
To reverse the decision to put the privatization process on a fast-track and
to reconsider the broader decision to invite the participation of foreign
companies into water sector. Instead, the GOG should investigate approaches
which enhance and promote local businesses in cooperation with communities,
local government bodies and the GWC Ltd.
Publish the terms guiding the bidding process as well as the profile of the
companies currently pre-qualified to bid.
Put all relevant documents in the public domain, including World bank
mission, project and evaluation reports, the so-called Stone and Webster
Report and/or the Transaction Advisor's Report etc.
Conduct a country-wide public debate on options for reforming sector,
including but not limited to private sector participation.
Review the budget with the view to prioritizing allocation in favour of the
water sector.

Parliament
Exert pressure on government to allow for broad debate and a possible review
of the current decision to privatize.
Embark on wide-scale consultation with their constituencies and civil
society in general.
Support a process of constitutional and legal reform to secure the rights of
all persons to portable water.
The Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).
Make the Right to Water central to their campaign on the right to life.
The TUC, the PUWU and Organisations of working people.
Be at the fore front in the struggle for the right to water, and our right
as a nation to keep our public utilities within the public sector.
Continue to work towards greater efficiency, accountability and good
governance in all of our national life including the water sector.
To oppose the mortgaging of our water resources to foreign multinational
companies, with proven record of the oppressions of workers rights and the
promotion of corrupt and corrupting practices in other jurisdictions.
Women's Rights Organisation
To recognize and promote the right to water as crucial to addressing gender
inequality and repression
The GJA and the Media Houses and Practitioners
To call for and support an informed and broad-based debate on the water
privatization agenda and its effect on the right to water by all Ghanaians.
Religious Organisations, and all other sectors of Civil Society.
To raise the moral voice on the right to water and to lend their varied
media to popular education and debate on the effects of water privatization.
Ministry of Health
To join the campaign to ensure access to safe, affordable water as a
fundamental aspect of the commitment to improve the public health of the
nation.
Donors, Creditors, Including the World Bank
To de-link external assistance and soft loans to the condition to privatize
our water systems.
To commit to promoting true national ownership of policies as expected under
the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper processes currently being actively
promoted by them. This requires, among others, respecting genuine national
decisions which may not be in consonance with their opinion.
To fulfill the commitment made by the Ghana World Bank resident
Representative, Mr Peter Harrold, at the National Forum on Water
Privatization, to make the eradication of guinea worm the number one
priority. This will require that public health, rather than cost recovery
determine investment in water services.
We commit ourselves, under the banner of the Ghana National CAP of Water to
pursuing these demands and commitments to their logical conclusions. We
believe that under the new democratic dispensation we will be one with
government in promoting zero tolerance to corruption, democratic
participation, transparency and accountability. We, like the government
believe that these are important tenants of democracy and good governance
and are crucial to ensuring social justice and reducing waste.