Ghana: government urged to reject donor influence on water delivery

Mr Edem Asimah, Chairman of the Select Committee on Water and Sanitation, [has] urged government to determine its own water delivery systems for the people and not allow donors to impose their conditions on us.

He said over the years various governments had failed to stop donors from imposing conditionalities on the water sector and this had negatively affected the quality of water delivery in the country.

Mr Asimah, who is the Member of Parliament for South Dayi, was speaking at a stakeholder seminar organized by CONIWAS in collaboration with Water Aid, Ghana on [...] “The right to water and sanitation in Ghana: A national action plan for implementation”.

[...]

Mr Ben Arthur, Executive Secretary of CONIWAS, said even though Ghanaians have the right to demand for water and sanitation services from state institutions it should not be misinterpreted that the services should be free.

He said every right exercised by the people came with a lot of responsibilities, which Ghanaians must not gloss-over.

He said the government had a responsibility to [...] protect people who could not afford the water [and]
to ensure that people have access to good drinking water and at reasonable prices.

[T]he Coalition had already presented a memorandum for the adoption of the rights to water and sanitation to the Constitutional Review Committee.

Source: GNA, 28 Jul 2011

Namibia: Independent UN expert urges nation to expand access to sanitation services

Ms. Catarina de Albuquerque, United Nations independent expert on the right to water and sanitation paid a week-long visit to Namibia. She noted that the country has over the past 20 years achieved significant progress in extending its water network across the country. Ms. De Albuquerque urged the Government to make similar efforts to ensure that proper sanitation is available to more people in the country. She stressed that access to water and sanitation are human rights, and while that did not mean that the two services must be offered free of charge, it meant that systems must be in place to ensure availability to those who face economic barriers to access. Water points are still far away from households and water remains too expensive. She added that community participation in the design and implementation of water and sanitation projects was indispensable.

Ms. De Albuquerque will prepare a report to be presented at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva next year, describing her main findings and providing recommendations.

Source: UN News Service / allAfrica.com, 11 July 2011

Ghana: only 0.1% of budget committed to sanitation

In spite of the Government’s pledge to commit 0.5% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to sanitation, the 2011 budget made provision for only 0.1%, said Executive Secretary of the Coalition of NGOs in water and sanitation (CONIWAS), Mr Benjamin Arthur. Ghana is one of the signatories of the 2008 eThekwini Declaration in which 17 African governments pledged to allocate a minimum of 0.5% of GDP for sanitation and hygiene.

Arthur said despite the government’s 2010 promise to commit 200 million dollars every year towards water and sanitation activities beginning in 2011, this year’s budget did not reflect that commitment.

Botswana: Bushmen to get water after court rule

Bushmen living in Botswana’s Central Kalahari Game Reserve will receive a crucial new water supply next month after winning a lengthy court battle, the diamond firm mining the area said on Wednesday.

Source: Fin24, 22 June 2011

Read the full story

Related news: Outrage as Court denies Bushmen access to water

Bostwana: Tiffany’s target of protest for Bushmen’s right to water

Protestors outside Tiffany's store in London. Photo: Marc Cowan / Survival International

Supporters of tribal people’s rights demonstrated on 3 February 20010 outside Tiffany jewelry stores in London, Madrid, Paris, Berlin and San Francisco to protest the company’s support of Botswana government policies that provide water for wildlife but not for indigenous people on their ancestral lands. Demonstrators want Tiffany to stop all cooperation with the Botswana government until the Bushmen are allowed to exercise their right to water. The protests are being coordinated by Survival International; Bushman spokesman Jumanda Gakelebone stated: “Tiffany is supporting the government but ignoring the Bushmen. It should not be giving money to the government while we don’t have any water.”

In 2002 the government evicted the tribesmen from their land, which is part of a huge nature reserve. That action was overturned in 2006 by a High Court ruling that allows the Bushmen to remain, however the Botswana government has blocked the tribe’s access to their water borehole, forcing them to go outside of the reserve – a 500 km round trip – to get water.

The Bushmen were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands and forbidden access to the water that has sustained them for centuries. In the mean time a tourist lodge with swimming pool, requiring new boreholes for water, has been built within the reserve.

Tiffany have told news agency Mmegi that “they remain as proud as ever in their funding of wildlife and other charity works in Botswana”. The Tiffany & Co. Foundation recently released US$ 500,000 towards the drilling and rehabilitation of 10 boreholes and pans in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) and a further four boreholes and pans in the nearby Khutse Game Reserve.

This grant is part of the Foundation larger programme to promote wildlife conservation as a source of sustainable economic development in Botswana. Together with the University of Pennsylvania, the Foundation is also building a facility for HIV/AIDS treatment at the Princess Marina Hospital in Botwana’s capital Gaborone.

On her first ever visit to Botswana, President of Tiffany Foundation Fernanda Kellog said: “I think water is precious. We are giving the wildlife the most precious thing, water. There is nothing more important we can do than help wildlife get water.”

Read more about Survivals’ campaign for the Botswsna Bushmen.

Source: Nancy Roberts, Care2.com, 04 Feb 2010 ; Survival, 03 Feb 2010 ; Mmegi Online, 05 Feb 2010

View EFeverde.com video of the protest outside the Tiffany store in London

Kenya: two million people live in a human rights black hole in the slums of Nairobi

The Kenyan Public Health Act prescribes the health and safety measures that landlords must comply with, including the provision of sanitation and other services. As with other provisions, the local authorities do not enforce these against landlords or developers who build and rent homes in slums and settlements like Kibera.

Amnesty International has visited Kibera and other Nairobi slums as part of their global “Demand Dignity” campaign. The lack of adequate water and sanitation are recognized as human rights abuses. Amnesty is mobilizing slum residents to demand adequate housing and basic services.

Amnesty International released its report “The Unseen Majority: Nairobi’s Two Million Slum Dwellers” on 19 June 2009, which describes the dire conditions and gross human rights abuses endured in Nairobi’s informal settlements.

A performer from Black Marimba Cultural troop entertains marchers as they gather at Central Park, Nairobi. Photo: Amnesty International

Amnesty International’s Demand Dignity campaign aims to end global poverty by working to strengthen recognition and protection of the rights of the poor. Besides on slums, the campaign focuses on maternal mortality, corporate accountability and making rights law.

Read more on the Demand Dignity campaign web site

Demand Dignity Poster. Amnesty International

Source: Amnesty International, 19 Jun 2009

South Africa: Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) hands down judgment on Phiri water case

The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) declared [on 25 March 2009] that the pre-payment water meters used in Phiri (a township in Soweto) in respect of water level 3 consumers is unlawful, because such use is not authorised by the by-laws, but suspended its order for a period of two years so as to enable the City of Johannesburg to legalise that use if it was able to do so.

The SCA also declared that the City of Johannesburg is constitutionally obliged to provide 42 litres free water to each Phiri resident who cannot afford to pay for such water, to the extent that it is reasonable to do so, having regard to its available resources. It ordered the City and Johannesburg Water (Pty) Ltd to reconsider and reformulate their free water policy accordingly. Until such time as that policy is reformulated the City and Johannesburg Water were ordered to provide account holders in Phiri who are registered as indigent with 42 litres free water per day per member of his or her household.

The appeal that was brought by the City, Johannesburg Water and the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry against declarations and orders made against them by the Johannesburg High Court was partially successful, to the extent that those declarations and orders were amended.

Read the full text of the appeal here.

Source: Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa, 25 Mar 2009

The Coalition Against Water Privatisation (CAWP) called the SCA judgment “a case of ‘one step forward, two steps back’”. [...] The [CAWP welcomes] “SCA’s decision to set aside the City’s present policy of limiting the provision of free basic water to 6kl per month/per household” [but it contends that] 42 litres of water per person/per day [...] falls short of what is universally accepted and recognised as the minimum amount of water needed for basic human needs and dignity”.

“Even more problematic though, is that the SCA’s order to the City to provide this amount, is conditional [and that it effectively] allowed carte blanche (through its own assessment of what constitutes ‘reasonableness’ and ‘through available resources’) to determine the timing, character and extent of changes to its existing ‘free water policy’. To make matters worse, the SCA order explicitly states that while the City is ‘reformulating’ its policy, the provision of the increased free basic amount must only be available to those who are registered as indigents with the City. [...] In making such an order, the SCA allows the City, once again, to unilaterally determine and manage who enjoys their constitutional right to water and when. Crucially, it effectively legalises the treatment of the poor majority as second class citizens”.

[...] “The order gives the City two years to pass the necessary by-laws so that the pre-paid meters can then be ‘legalised’. In practical terms, this means that the City can thus continue to forcibly install pre-paid meters in poor communities (while providing wealthier residents with full credit metered water systems and thus allowing those with the means to do, to consume as much water as they want as long as they can afford it). This is a legal cop-out”, says CAWP. A view echoed by Kerry Williams from from Webber Wentzel’s public law department in his article “Court’s slippery water remedy not good for the rule of law”published in Business Day, 30 March 2009

Source: CAWP, Anarkismo.net, 27 Mar 2009

South Africa: Jo’burg to Challenge Phiri Water Ruling

The Supreme Court of Appeal [began on 23 February 2009] a hearing on the constitutionality of the installation and use of prepaid water meters in Phiri, Soweto. At issue is the constitutional right of access to sufficient water.

At stake for the City of Johannesburg is “the foundation of its water policy”, which has cost the city billions to implement, and is aimed at ensuring everyone has access to some form of water supply.

At stake for the residents of Phiri is suffering from having water for only a limited time in a month.

The case is the first to deal with state obligations to provide access to sufficient water. When it was heard first in the Johannesburg High Court, Judge Moroa Tsoka asserted the “minimum core” concept (that in dealing with socioeconomic rights, government should be measured against a minimum standard of delivery), rejected previously by the Constitutional Court.

[In 2008], the Phiri residents won their case in the Johannesburg High Court. The city is now appealing to the Supreme Court of Appeal.

Read more: Franny Rabkin, Business Day / allAfrica.com, 23 Feb 2009

Ghana: COHRE publishes a rights-based review of water and sanitation sector

The Right to Water Programme (RWP) of the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) has released on 23 February 2009, a report on the Ghanaian water and sanitation sector. This publication reviews the existing legal and policy framework of the Ghanaian water and sanitation sector using international human rights standards. The objective of the review is to determine the extent to which the framework guarantees the right to water and sanitation in accordance with Ghana’s international human rights obligations. The report titled A rights-based review of the Ghanaian water and sanitation sector, highlights key areas requiring attention and makes specific recommendations for improvement.

Read the full report here and executive summary here.

South Africa: Court ruling on water sets “global precedent”

A landmark High Court ruling against a multimillion-dollar prepaid water scheme in South Africa’s largest township, Soweto, has been heralded as a global precedent in the struggle for the basic human right to water. The City of Johannesburg is expected to appeal the judgement and residents realise that “the struggle will not end anytime soon”.

In a class-action suit, five residents of Phiri, one of Soweto’s poorest townships, asked the court to order the city to provide at least 50 litres of free water per person per day.

They also asked that they be given the choice of an ordinary credit water meter instead of the prepaid system imposed by the city, on which the court ruled in their favour as well.

The prepaid system was part of a larger scheme called operation Gcin’amanzi, meaning ‘save water’, to improve and expand Soweto’s aging waterworks. “The problem for the city had been the large amount water that was unaccounted for,” said Virgil James, spokesman for the City of Johannesburg. Estimates on the City of Johannesburg’s website put water loss in the township alone at about seven billion litres a month. “The meters have already led to a significant reduction in unaccounted water loss [52 billion litres of water had been saved so far], saving money.”

Although James argued that free water was not sustainable, [...] the court said there was no need for the water utility to recoup investments, and insisted that Johannesburg City had both the financial means and access to sufficient water to provide 50 litres per person per day.

Read more: IRIN, 6 May 2008

Ashfaq Khalfan, Coordinator of the Right to Water Programme of the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) said, “This decision will be an immense boost to poor communities in South Africa and elsewhere. It is a warning shot against attempts to forcibly impose pre-paid water systems on the poor elsewhere in Africa and globally.” The judgment [...] creates a useful precedent for litigation globally, said COHRE on their web site.

COHRE has posted the High Court of South Africa’s judgement in full together with a summary and analysis of the judgement on their site.

The South African Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) has made the submissions of the applicants and respondents in the case of Mazibuko v. City of Johannesburg available on its site.

International support to the case was provided by:

• COHRE (Switzerland), which provided a third party submission (amicus curiae), and
• Peter Gleick, President of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security (USA), who submitted a supporting affidavit (see also the Institute’s related press release).