Civil Society groups participating in the ongoing UNCTAD XII conference in Accra have kicked against the privatization of water and health services.
In their view privatizing water and health will make the attainment of the much-touted Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by developing countries a remote possibility.
Speaking in turns at a public forum organized by the Coalition of NGOs in Accra last Friday, Messrs Al-hassan Adam, Co-ordinator of Africa Water Network and Charles Acquah, National Chairman of Coalition of NGOs in Health, pointed out that with only seven years more to meet the MDGs deadline of 2015, access to potable water and health delivery by the poor is progressively becoming grim.
The Forum was under the theme, "Service Liberalization: Private Gain, Public Pain" and it was organised to synthesize issues which would serve as part of the recommendations to the UNCTAD General Meeting.
The General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS) one of the WTO rules recommend the privatization of water.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the world's time-bound and quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty in its many dimensions-income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter, and exclusion-while promoting gender equality, education, and environmental sustainability. They are also basic human rights-the rights of each person to health, education, shelter and security.
Using statistics to buttress his claims, Mr. Adam pointed out that currently; there are 314 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa who do not have access to potable. He said in Ghana for instance, urban water coverage has declined from 70% in 2005 to 59%. According to him, in 1959 an amount of 350 million pounds ($ 5billion) in today's prices was invested into the water sector as compared to an investment of $123 in 2008 over a period of five years.
"He said it is rather ironical that with the passage of the years, investment in the water sector continues to dwindle, making the achieving of the MDG target for water a dream," he stressed.
To scale the seemingly intractable problems of the water sector in order to meet the MDGs, Mr. Adam Alhassan of the National Coalition Against Privatization of Water (NCACW) proposed the opening up of the water management for consumer participation, the promotion of alternative public-public water management and the fight against the privatization of water.
Mr. Charles Acquah says available statistics reveal that out of the 69,000 HIV/AIDS patients in Ghana only 12,315 representing 19.5% are on Anti retroviral drugs treatment.
He said notwithstanding the gains being made with respect of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), the health sector is still saddled with problems that have to be addressed. He noted that with the coming into force of the GATS, which encourages privatization of health services, the poor are bound to suffer the most.
He said Ghana would lose out under GATS in respect of brain drain because it promotes migration of health personnel.
During the discussion session, Ms. Florence Okra, a midwife with Eve's Foundation, an NGO that runs a pregnancy school, advocated the promotion of home delivery as a measure of reducing maternal mortality. In her opinion, hospitals should be for emergency delivery.
She advocated the empowerment of women through childbirth education and also called on the government to assist private midwives in order to reduce maternal mortality.Public Agenda
