Participants of the National Water Summit, held in Abuja last month, have appealed to the Federal Government of Nigeria and its counterparts in neighbouring countries, to reject the use of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the water sector as advocated by the World Bank.

The Summit was organised by Environmental Rights Action, Friends of the Earth Nigeria, Corporate Accountability, Public Services International (PSI), Transnational Institute, and the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service, Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE), and attended by over 150 participants drawn from local, national and international civil society and grassroots groups.

Key issues on the agenda included the need to intensify pressure on the Lagos government to alter its pro-privatisation stance in relation to water and infrastructural development and the reinvigoration of the Africa Coalition Against Water Privatisation. The summit denounced the aggressive marketing of the so-called "success myth" of PPPs by the World Bank and International Finance Corporation (IFC), especially in lower-to-middle income nations.

The summit concluded that PPPs in the water sector represent a new form of colonialism aggressively marketed by the World Bank and its corporate partners, defining success only in terms of profit to corporations rather than universal affordable water access.

The coalition of attendants is advocating that the Nigerian government replace the PPP model with proven public solutions including the Public-Public Partnership model and a national Water Trust Fund, and initiate a probe of all PPP projects, loans and funding for the existing water system and infrastructure nationwide.