Consumers’ Right to Ghana’s Water

by The Consumer Partnership (THE-COP)

Access to a basic supply of water and sanitation is widely recognised in principle as a fundamental human right. The United Nations Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights adopted a General Comment on the Right to Water in November 2002. This puts an obligation on governments to extend access to sufficient, affordable and safe water and sanitation services progressively to all citizens without discrimination. This right, which we support, is also established in Agenda 21, in the Declaration of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development and by the 4th P7 Summit on Water (a meeting dedicated to the world’s poorest countries).

To meet the Millennium Development Goals of halving the number of people without access to water and sanitation by 2015, 400,000 new connections need to be made each day for water and 500,000 for sanitation. This is estimated to cost approximately U$25 billion of investment per year. Debates about water policy focus on how to find the funds for this large investment and how to manage water resources to meet the basic rights of all.

Some of the sharpest disputes have been about private sector participation, often promoted as a means to inject capital and management expertise. Consumers International’s (CI) research shows that private sector involvement, which can take many forms, has in some cases been very valuable (eg rapid network extension, community involvement in informal settlements, leakage reduction, integration of informal vendors) and in others has been disastrous for consumers (eg rapid price rises, premature contract renegotiation, failure to meet expansion targets). In the same way, some public supply systems are excellent, and others are very bad. There should be a code of practice for water utility operators, be they public or private operators.

CI therefore promotes a set of principles which should be applied to all water supply systems, whether in the public sector, entirely privately managed, or a mixture of the two. These principles reflect and support the statements adopted within the United Nations.   

Consumer principles

1.      Consumer rights  Water is a basic need and access to it is therefore specifically recognised in the first of the eight internationally accepted consumer rights. Access to sufficient safe water is essential for life itself, as a vital contributor to public health, and for personal dignity and fulfilment. Water is not just a commercial product like any other and it is a primary obligation on responsible government to make the right to water a reality.

2.      A public good  Water itself is a public good and must remain so. Rights to extract water from sources such as natural reservoirs, rivers and aquifers should be controlled by public authorities, with due regard for the needs of producers, consumers and the environment.

3.      Shared resources Natural water resources are shared between states and cross their boundaries along river basins. Access to water for all consumers must be the overriding objective in reaching equitable agreements about water use across geographical and political boundaries. 

4.      Regulation  Whether provided by public institutions, the private sector, or a combination of the two, water treatment and distribution systems should be subject to effective state regulation to promote and protect the public interest. Regulation should cover access - including as necessary, pricing policy, safety, and service quality (cut-offs, pressure maintenance, billing, for example). Regulation should also cover small scale vendors  where relevant.

5.      Consumer involvement  Consumers should be involved in the regulatory process, including in both establishing and implementing of these regulations. Stakeholder involvement should start with the assessment of needs and objectives and the analysis  of possible utility management models to meet these. The provision of full and timely information is essential for effective stakeholder involvement at all stages.

6.      Pricing  Water pricing, and the use of any subsidies, should be transparent and also equitable between groups of users in similar circumstances. Poverty should never be a barrier to access to a basic supply of clean water and to effective sanitation.

7.      Payment and subsidies  Paying for the water supply should be properly costed and the means to pay for it identified and planned. This includes both capital and operating costs. But recovery of full costs from charges to users should not be the only approach. Public interest objectives such as improving public health and enabling communities to escape from the unproductive drudgery of time-consuming water collection, should be taken into account and if necessary supported by subsidies.

8.      Avoiding waste  Water is a scarce resource and making it available to all, especially the poor, is a challenge for all countries and communities. Consumers have an obligation to respect the wider public interest by avoiding wasteful use, ensuring that they do not contaminate the supply, and paying their due share of the costs of supply.

9.      Private sector obligations  Private companies providing water services have an obligation to respect and support effective regulation, to play a responsible part in delivering social objectives and, where they operate internationally, to apply good safety and service quality standards in all countries.

10.  Polluter pays The polluter pays principle, covering both preventive measure and clean-up costs, should apply to natural water resources and to water distribution and sanitation systems.

Credit: Consumers International (CI) and Water & Sanitation Program (WSP)