5. In Search of the Right Formula II: Private Sector Participation

While community-based water development has its merits, communities ultimately lack the financial influence of private sector participants, creating instances where privatisation might appear to be the more appropriate approach (Page 2003).

Privatisation is now arguably a central focus of development policy. Rather than representing a specific model of management, the term privatisation 'encompasses a spectrum of contractual arrangements between the government sector, ranging from a management contract through to divestiture' (Bayliss 2003:510). Hence, private-sector participation comes in different levels of involvement ranging from full privatisation like in the UK ('Thames Water' is emblazoned across manhole covers in London), to leasing public infrastructure to private firms like in the Ivory Coast or having public-private partnerships (PPPs). 

Advocates for private-sector participation typically make their case by citing how corruption has contributed to inefficient public management, and how profit-driven private firms should be better at revenue collection and expanding networks than public organisations (Pierce 2015). Indeed, privatisation has proved itself useful in places such as the Ivory Coast, where a PPP has successfully provided water services since 1960 and continues going strong today (World Bank 2022). 

However, privatisation is not always successful, and is certainly not always welcomed by citizens who associate private-sector participation with upward pressure on prices due to the need to generate profit. Furthermore, prices are often increased before private firms even enter the scene, in order to make the project more commercially attractive to investors - this was the case in many African countries like Gabon and Guinea (Bayliss 2003). 

Furthermore, privatisation also does not sit well with the ideological beliefs of many Africans. In countries like Cameroon, Gabon, Ghana, Senegal and Nigeria, there has been much activism because privatisation is viewed as a form of Western intervention and neocolonialism which contradicts African principles that their people have a fundamental right to the world's resources. As Dr Melina Abdullah of the Black Lives Matter Grassroots puts it, "Access to water should be a human right, not something held by white supremacist capitalism." (Public Services International 2021). 

This video depicts the multiple protests against privatisation in Lagos, where the Our Water Our Right Africa Coalition is calling on the government for privatised water systems to be returned for "more affordable and equitable management". 

Again, this just goes to show that water management practices cannot be divorced from their wider historical and political contexts. By extension, it would be overly reductive to push for a single approach without taking into account the unique context of each case. Perhaps, the answer to the right formula cannot be found in the debate of who manages water supplies best; but rather in the 'economic, political, social and historical factors that have created and sustained effective water policies, regardless of ownership' (Bayliss 2003:529).