Students Against privatization of urban water supply

The Students' Representative Council (SRC) of the University of Ghana said on Thursday that it supports the position of the Christian Council, workers and NGOs kicking against the "inimical policy" of urban water privatisation.

In a statement signed by Mr Benjamin Ampoma-Boaten, President and Mr Frank Acheampong, Secretary, the SRC said two decades of structural adjustment policies and neo-liberalism have only delivered greater social inequalities and potential social disintegration.

"The fact that something as basic to life as water will not be spared the greed of the already powerful is evidence of the extremism of an agenda that will stop at nothing to concentrate more and more resources and wealth in the hands of a few as their private gain, even if this is at the cost of the pain of many."

The statement said the public water system is an integrated one, which includes a range of activities from water sourcing, production and distribution.

It said it is possible to separate these activities such that they would be operated and controlled by different entities.

"The Government-World Bank proposal for water sector restructuring calls for the separation of urban water supply systems and the transfers of their management and control.

"In short, the government is transferring effective ownership to profit-oriented multi-national companies."

The statement said the restructuring of the urban water supply systems to fulfil a profit motive "is a reorientation of how public-funded institutions and services no longer have the primary purpose of providing a public need and serving the public interest."

It said the directors of public institutions should be made accountable to the public.

"We recognise that it is precisely such failure of accountability and governance that is at the source of the crisis and inefficiencies in public institutions such as the Ghana Water Company Limited and public services such as the water sector.

"We reject the ridiculous view that the solution to weak public accountability is to do away with any possibility of public accountability altogether and replace it with self-interest as guarantor of efficiency."