Water activists from across the global south community have condemned the continued implementation of water funds arguing that water funds are a subtle form of water privatization which is there to protect corporate interests more than advance the human right to water.
Speaking during the Just Water Futures organized online webinar which ran under the topic “Water Funds – Who Really Controls Our Water?”, water activists and researchers from Colombia, Ghana and Kenya questioned the efficacy, interests and operations of water funds.
Camila Perez Failach from Colombia narrated her first-hand experiences with water funds. Camila critiqued water funds for their opaque operations; advancing corporate interests over human rights and ecological justice; and usurping the role and jurisdiction of the nation state. Camila further noted that business always welds more power and this power imbalance is visible when looking at the decisions made by water funds which favour corporations over people. Camila also argued that in the water funds she has studies, most of the money goes to operations (60%) compared to services (40%) thus raising concerns over the public utility of these funds. Camila called for the public management of water saying “public management of water is critical and should be maintained to protect human rights and the relationship between human beings and nature”.
Similar sentiments to Camila’s were echoed by Gyekye Tanoh from Ghana and Violet from Kenya. Gyekye noted that privatization has been a spectacular failure in Africa and elsewhere and called for collective agency across geographies in order to avert the continued morphing of water funds in order to advance the water privatization agenda.
Water funds are presented as public-private partnerships designed to achieve “water security” through nature-based solutions. Promoted by powerful actors—including the Inter-American Development Bank, the FEMSA Foundation, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and the Global Environment Facility among others—water funds represent a convergence of financial capital, corporate interests, and environmental governance. These funds create vehicles for private sector investment into water ecosystems and infrastructure. Since the first water fund was launched in Quito, Ecuador, this model has rapidly expanded, with 26 funds now operating in Latin America and 9 in the Caribbean and according to The Nature Conservancy about 16 in Africa. TNC’s model has also expanded to Africa. In 2015, the Tana-Nairobi River Water Fund was launched in Kenya, with $18 million secured from government, international donors, and corporations like Coca-Cola, Frigoken, and East African Brewery. Proponents highlight financial returns—such as reduced treatment costs and improved hydropower efficiency—rather than equitable access, ecological sustainability, or democratic control.
But, behind these narratives lies a concerning trend; exclusion of communities from their water resources and often cases of bypassing public accountability and community decision-making.