WDM Campaigns Policy officer Vicky Cann said: “This is simply the wrong company with the wrong skills and the wrong background. What is needed is an even-handed and meaningful consultation process on the future of Sierra Leone’s public water supply - one which looks at all the options. But PricewaterhouseCoopers’ self-proclaimed expertise is in privatisation - it will be like asking a vampire to turn vegan!”

“We are very disappointed that the Department for International Development (DFID) has gone ahead with this contract. DFID seems oblivious to the fact that the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have been pushing water privatisation in Sierra Leone for years. And while DFID have told us that they want all the options explored, the contract’s terms of reference are clearly biased in favour of privatisation solutions”

“Less than one in three people in Sierra Leone, the world’s second poorest country have access to safe drinking water. The water utility in Freetown needs urgent improvement but all options should be considered including maintaining the water as a publicly owned utility. The starting point should be a proper consultation process, with civil society and residents of Freetown.”

“WDM believes that PricewaterhouseCoopers should pull out from the whole contract unless the water component is dropped. DFID should remove the water component from this contract and work with Sierra Leonean civil society and the government to develop an alternative aid programme for the Freetown water sector which has as its starting point, the need to get clean drinking water to the poor.”

Editors Notes

 [1] The PricewaterhouseCoopers website says “PricewaterhouseCoopers has been providing leading edge advice on privatisation and project finance to governments and the private sector in Africa Central and we are market leaders in the field.” http://www.pwc.com/Extweb/service.nsf/docid/4343C1F2A3736C0185256CE60052A874

 [2] DFID’s proposed contract will see PricewaterhouseCoopers advising the Sierra Leonean government on privatising 24 state-owned enterprises including the Guma Valley Water Company, in Freetown. DFID’s original contract paperwork also required the chosen consultants to run public relations work to support the privatisation programme. DFID has since clarified that this should involve consultation with the people in Sierra Leone. Nonetheless, WDM remains very concerned about this project as detailed in the media briefing.

 [3] There has been a history of international donor conditionality around the privatisation of utilities in Sierra Leone in recent years. In 2001, the IMF made the restructuring and privatisation of public enterprises a condition of its aid package and in 2002, the privatisation programme was a condition of Sierra Leone joining the Heavily Indebted Poor Country debt relief process. More recently, the World Bank said, of its own project there: “The recently approved Power and Water Project... will pursue power and water sector reforms aimed at increasing private sector involvement through investment and public-private partnerships, particularly through instituting a performance-oriented management contract for ... the Guma Valley Water Corporation.” More information about the history of utility conditions in Sierra Leone can be found at: http://www.wdm.org.uk/campaigns/aid/sierraleone/timeline.htm

 [4] Water privatisation has had a dismal record in sub-Saharan Africa. New investment to repair and install pipes is often cited as a key reason to privatise water services in developing countries. But WDM’s report ‘Pipe Dreams’ shows that only one per cent of promised private sector investment in water globally since 1990 was targeted at sub-Saharan Africa. Meanwhile, water privatisation contracts in Tanzania, Guinea, the Gambia and South Africa, to name but four, have all ended after poor performance. Pipe Dreams can be found at: http://www.wdm.org.uk/resources/briefings/aid/pipedreamsfullreport.pdf

 [5] In October 2005, WDM went to Sierra Leone to raise awareness about DFID’s proposed project with civil society groups in Sierra Leone. NGOs in Freetown have set up a Reform Monitoring Group, to monitor the Sierra Leonean privatisation programme, including DFID’s project.

 [6] Further information on all of these issues is available from WDM’s media briefing http://www.wdm.org.uk/resources/briefings/aid/Sierra_Leone_media_briefing_0906.doc

 [7] WDM Policy Campaigns Officer Vicky Cann is available for interview