Akinbode Oluwafemi: Privatising Water Will Deepen Climate Inequality

The Executive Director of Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), Mr. Akinbode Oluwafemi, has called for stronger public control of water resources as a cornerstone of Africa’s climate resilience strategy.

He made the call on Monday, October 13, 2025, while delivering his welcome remarks at the opening ceremony of the 5th Africa Week of Action Against Water Privatisation, held at CAPPA’s head office in Lagos.

The week-long event is convened by the Our Water Our Right Africa Coalition (OWORAC) in partnership with the Africa Make Big Polluters Pay (MBPP) Coalition.

Addressing participants from across Africa and around the world, Oluwafemi said the gathering represented a powerful alliance of grassroots movements, labour unions, civil society groups, and community leaders united by the conviction that water is a human right, not a commodity for profit.

“This year’s event is particularly significant because, for the first time in OWORAC’s organising history, we are joining hands with the Africa Make Big Polluters Pay Coalition,” he said. “This partnership symbolises the deepening recognition that water justice and climate justice are inseparable.”

Oluwafemi also welcomed the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation, Mr. Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, whose participation, he said, “affirms the global dimension of our struggle” and underscores that “life itself cannot be commodified.”

The CAPPA Executive Director warned that while climate change is worsening water scarcity across Africa, governments are coming under increasing pressure to privatise public water systems — a move he described as both dangerous and unjust.

“At a time when we need stronger, publicly accountable systems to guarantee universal access, we are seeing growing pressure to hand control of this essential resource to profit-driven corporations,” he said. “While nature cries for justice in the face of the climate emergency, capital smells opportunity.”

He condemned multinational corporations for promoting water privatisation and desalination projects as so-called climate solutions, saying such schemes merely repackage exploitation under the guise of innovation.

“Today we reject these false solutions,” he declared. “The way we protect and govern water will determine whether our communities can endure the crises ahead.”

Oluwafemi stressed that the fight against water commodification is part of a broader continental effort to safeguard public services and social justice. “Publicly managed services, when transparently governed, form the foundation of social justice and climate resilience,” he noted.

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He commended international allies, including Corporate Accountability (U.S.) and representatives of the United Nations, for standing in solidarity with Africa’s water justice movement.

“As we begin this Week of Action,” Oluwafemi concluded, “let us carry forward this collective spirit — understanding that defending public water is, in essence, defending life itself. Water is life, not profit.”