Staff Reporter
The Minister of Agriculture, Water, and Land Reform, Calle Schlettwein, has advocated against the privatization of water provision services, citing concerns over potential cost increases for consumers and the exacerbation of inequality.
The minister made these remarks at the World Water Forum in Bali, Indonesia, during a panel discussion organized by the African Development Bank and African Water Facility on “innovative financing and resource mobilization for climate-resilient water and sanitation investments.”
Schlettwein revealed that private sector involvement in water provision services is often suggested, but emphasised that it comes with significant drawbacks.
“It brings about one aspect that is not so favourable, and that is the profit motive. The consumer must pay the profit of the private sector. If the private sector is more efficient than the public sector in water supply, it might make sense, but the examples that we have are that the private sector does not share in the cost of integrating resources, it does not share in the cost of exploring resources, it does not share in the cost of risk avoidance when it comes to disasters like droughts and floods. So the efficiency of the private sector needs to include those costs to come to an accurate figure of what the tariff must be,” Schlettwein said.
He argued that privatization would disproportionately affect vulnerable and impoverished populations, potentially depriving them of access to water.
“People’s lives depend on water and we cannot enter a system where the availability of money dictates the availability of water. It must be the other way around. Water must be given and what you pay is secondary in question. I believe that must be entered into the new rules that we write for the water sector if shared prosperity is our goal. If not, we will bring inequality,” Schlettwein said.
