The Our Water Our Right Africa Coalition (OWORAC), working together with the Africa Make Big Polluters Pay Coalition, recently brought together climate justice and public water advocates, community leaders, and public policy experts from across the continent for a regional webinar titled Public Water for Climate Resilience.
Held on Wednesday, October 15, 2025, as a highlight of the 5th Africa Week of Action Against Water Privatisation, the virtual session drew more than 40 participants to examine how the accelerating climate crisis is deepening water insecurity and why public ownership of utilities remains key to adaptation.
The session was moderated by Robert Egbe, Media and Communications Officer at Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), who framed the discussion around the shared concern that the continued push for privatisation and commercialisation of water services in Africa undermines equity, weakens public systems and erodes the human right to safe water.
In his opening remarks, Olamide Martins, Associate Director of Climate Change at CAPPA, emphasised the interconnected nature of climate change and water justice. He noted that climate impacts such as floods, droughts and contamination disproportionately affect low-income communities whose access to water has already been constrained by years of underinvestment in public systems. Martins cautioned that privatisation models sharpen these vulnerabilities by placing affordability above need, thereby weakening community resilience in an era of escalating climate shocks.
The webinar then shifted to the continent-wide experience with privatisation. Leonard Shang Quartey, Coordinator of the Africa Water Justice Network, delivered a detailed reflection on why water must remain a public resource. Drawing on lessons from Ghana and other African countries, he explained that privatisation had neither improved access nor expanded coverage. Instead, it increased costs for households and reduced state accountability. He also raised concerns about emerging financialisation trends where corporations profit from water-based investment instruments without contributing to service delivery. According to him, such practices, along with commercialised public utilities that mimic private sector models, are incompatible with equitable and climate resilient water governance.
South Africa’s experience was presented by Paul Maluleke of the Alexandra Water Warriors, speaking on behalf of Gender CC Women for Climate Justice. Maluleke described how communities in Alexandra township are facing chronic water shortages and declining infrastructure due to governance failures, industrial overuse and climate induced pressures. He raised alarm over the growing adoption of prepaid metering in Johannesburg and Cape Town which immediately disconnects households when payments lapse, a system he said entrenches inequality and violates constitutional guarantees of access to water during a period of heightened climate volatility. Maluleke stressed the need for civic education, transparency and renewed state commitment to uphold water as a public right.
The policy dimension of the conversation was strengthened by a presentation from Zikora Ibeh, Assistant Executive Director at CAPPA. Ibeh outlined integrated pathways for building climate-resilient public water systems, including investment in natural infrastructure such as watersheds and wetlands, the strengthening of public-public partnerships, institutionalising community participation, and prioritising pro-poor spending through cross-subsidies that expand water connections for low-income households. She noted that climate resilience is strongest when decision making is participatory, systems are publicly accountable, and resources are channelled toward communities most at risk.
Delivering the webinar’s closing remarks, Sefa Ikpa, Program Officer for CAPPA’s Water Campaign, urged continued regional solidarity to resist both privatisation and its newer forms, such as prepaid metering and public-private-partnership models. She emphasised that democratic, people-centred governance is central to ensuring universal access, particularly in countries already grappling with climate stress. Ikpa called for stronger coordination among movements in Togo, Ghana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Nigeria to defend water as a public good.
Cross-section of the webinar – Paul Maluleke of the Alexandra Water Warriors presenting
The webinar concluded with a shared commitment to intensify advocacy and collaboration across Africa. Participants affirmed that climate change and water crises cannot be addressed through profit-driven arrangements and must instead be met with publicly owned, publicly funded, and climate-adaptive systems.
