Panel 86: Privatizing Urban Water Services in Africa: Who Benefits?

Privatizing urban water supply in Africa remains a hot issue since its introduction in the 1980s. It is highly contested who actually benefits from privatization: The consumers, or rather the private sector companies that are mandated to selling water to the households? Water service privatization was initially promoted by global players such as the Worldbank. They consider water as a commodity which should be allocated according to market logics. On the other hand, activists and NGOs often regard water in terms of public goods, basic needs and human rights, and they strongly oppose commercialization of water services.

Against this backdrop, the panel argues that the question of who benefits from privatizing water services goes beyond the limitations of the dispute of water rights versus commodification. Empirical evidence from African cities shows a complex situation of coexisting supply systems, adaptive practices and innovative strategies. Water supply systems often do not follow the simple logics of the privatization dispute, but they have to be understood in terms of social relationships, political affiliations and cultural representations. Thus, the panel seeks to explore how the privatization of urban water services can be approached in a context-specific way that takes into account the social dynamics of governmental institutions and water consumers, rapid urbanization processes, local strategies of gaining access, state-society relations, changing cultural identifications, power alliances and processes of socio-political reorganization.

Papers invited to this panel should be based on theoretical approaches and present case studies of the reshaping of urban waterscapes in Africa.