Don't Make Ghanaians Pay For Failed Desalination Deal - Water Justice Network Warns Govt Over $235m Judgement Debt

The Ghana Water Justice Network (GWJN) says water users must not be made to pay for the failure of water privatisation deals, following the $235 million judgement debt awarded against Ghana over the Teshie-Nungua Desalination Plant.

In a press statement dated September 29, 2026, and signed by eight civil society organisations, the Network said it is deeply concerned about the award granted to Befesa Desalination Developments Ghana Limited arising from the desalination plant and the Water Purchase Agreement between the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) and Befesa.

"For us, apart from this being another judgement-debt issue, the award raises the important question of; who eventually bears the cost when poorly conceived water privatisation contracts go wrong?" the statement said.

*Ghanaians deserve to know how we got here*

The GWJN said warning signs about the project had been there for years. It said residents and groups including the Teshie Concerned Citizens Association repeatedly raised concerns about the taste, salinity and acceptability of water from the plant.

It recalled that in the early period of the arrangement, ISODEC and Water Citizens worked with the community to raise concerns about the financial viability of the project and its implications for GWCL.

"Chiefly, the Public Utility Workers' Union (PUWU) also persistently warned about the financial burden the agreement was placing on GWL, all to deaf ears. PUWU questioned why the country had committed itself to an expensive desalination arrangement when cheaper alternatives could have been considered," the Network stated.

*A Judgement-Debt from an Unsolicited Proposal*

The Network described as questionable and scandalous the fact that the project came from an unsolicited proposal.

"The central question here is; if communities, workers and civil society raised all these red flags, why did the authorities persisted only for the country to be saddled with a judgement debt?" it queried.

The GWJN is demanding full disclosure of the contractual and financial arrangements surrounding the project, including the Water Purchase Agreement, subsequent amendments, renegotiated terms, the State Guarantee and key findings from the arbitration.

It further called for an independent, public-interest review to establish what went wrong, where institutional failures occurred and whether public interest was protected.