Privatisation and water governance in Africa: implications of a rights-based approach

This article was presented at the International Conference on Exploring Transdisciplinary Discourses: Water, Society and the Environment in Africa, under the auspices of the North-West University’s Water Studies Research Group in Collaboration with the International Water History Association, held in Drakensberg, South Africa, 20-24 April 2008.Early in the post-independence era, the control of water resources in many African states was a task of central planning. Regrettably, water management soon became a miry adventure in most African states largely because of warped planning and implementation. This article examines the phenomenon of private sector involvement in water resources management and seeks to understand the effect of such involvement on the right to water in Africa in the context of the Millennium Development Goals. The article explores the continuing relationship between African governments and non-state actors in the management of water resources in the privatisation age. The article further analyses the role of various national water governance initiatives vis-à-vis the efficient management of water resources and the sharp contradictions in their frameworks from a rights-based perspective. It evaluates the normative frameworks of access to water as a human right in Africa and contends that the human being must be placed at the centre of water discourses in assessing all role actors and their responsibilities. Extrapolating from experiences from various states within and outside Africa, this article advocates a rights-based approach to water issues and its value for the ultimate purpose of humancentred development