Activists Probe Ghana Water Sell-Off

"It's a growing trend to privatize public services like water, and Ghanaians have already seen huge rate increases," said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. "We are concerned about the growing trend toward privatization in the United States and want to see its impacts elsewhere."

The visit by the delegation, made up of observers from the United Nations, human rights groups and the British parliament, coincides with a trip by IMF Managing Director Horst Koehler, who is expected to press President John Kufuor of Ghana on the importance of cost recovery policies, under which users of social goods and services are charged fees.

The Ghana National Coalition Against the Privatization of Water (CAP) has expressed worry that the IMF's advice could put corporate profit-making priorities above the urgent need for clean and inexpensive water for Ghana's 20 million people.

The Coalition, campaigning under the slogan "Keep Our Water Public", comprises a range of individuals and organizations including workers, researchers, community leaders and charities, who all say they want better and cheaper access to water.

The international delegation, in a statement, said water fees have shot up by at least 95 percent and could rise by as much as 300 percent as the IMF and World Bank advocate increasing them to market rates.

The agencies have said the policies are designed to ensure that cash-strapped governments can sustain their social services and that they prevent waste by placing a financial value on water and other hitherto free resources.

According to the Bank, plans call for foreign management, not ownership, of the Accra-Tema water facility. The country's largest, it provides some 60 million gallons per day toward Ghana's total daily consumption of 115 million gallons. The lender said 56 percent of the facility's current output is unaccounted for and much of it likely is simply wasted.

The Zimbabwe-based African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD) estimates that 44 percent of Ghana's population lack access to water services.

"The current water tariff rates are already beyond the means of most of the population in Ghana," said Rudolf Amenga-Etego of CAP. "How will the population possibly be able to absorb a so-called market price in the context of privatization?"

Activists said they fear such considerations might seem remote to the government in Accra, which remains heavily dependent on foreign aid and credit to shore up a weak economy despite what the Bank and Fund have described as model implementation of economic restructuring since 1983.

Full cost recovery in electricity and water are among the requirements Ghana must fulfill in order to keep receiving funds from the international financial institutions and relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) debt initiative.

Ghana has an annual per capita income of 390 dollars, lower than many other sub-Saharan countries, according to the IMF. It has a Human Development Index ranking of 129 out of 174 countries.