Bottled, sachet water said to be threat to right to water
The Coalition of NGOs in the Water and Sanitation sector (CONIWAS), has lamented that the advent of bottled and sachet water in Ghana has dealt a heavy blow to the basic human right to water.
According to CONIWAS, “The infiltration of bottled and sachet water into our market has become the biggest threat to the realisation of the right to water in Ghana, as it has successfully diverted people’s attention away from more affordable sources to more expensive and unsustainable bottled and sachet water, which costs 500 times (in the case of sachet water) and 1,600 times (in the case of bottled water) higher than other improved sources such as taps, with little or no improvement in the quality.”
The group, which made these statements at a press conference in Accra on Sustainable Financing of Water and Sanitation Services in Ghana organised by the Foundation For Grassroots Initiatives in Africa, pointed to the General Comment number 15 (GC 15) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) which sets out the tripartite responsibility of states to respect, protect and fulfil the right to water.
Making the statements on behalf of the Coalition, the Vice Chair, Mrs. Hawa Nibi Amenga-Etego, stressed that “A state protects the right by preventing third parties (including private companies) from interfering with enjoyment of the right, including the imposition of appropriate regulatory measures (including taxes) on such parties.”
CONIWAS maintained that sachet and bottled water constitute commodification of water and interference in the right to water, saying “A service as essential as water cannot be subject to market forces.”
Admitting that there are shortcomings in the quality of water delivered through the taps, the Coalition urged all Ghanaians to put pressure on the government and demand sufficient water of acceptable quality through the taps as the only way to guarantee the enjoyment of the right to water by all.
The group further emphasised that majority of Ghanaians still rely on tap water and other improved sources beside bottled and sachet water as their sole source of drinking water, stating that according to the Ghana Statistical Services, only 8.2% of Ghanaians drink bottled and sachet water alongside other improved sources.
They gave the breakdown for urban and rural consumers of packaged water as 15.2% and 1.8% respectively, opining that the poor who do not have access to sachet and bottled water would constitute just a small fraction of the percentages stated.
By Edmund Smith-Asante