More than 400 million Africans are living without access to basic drinking water not primarily because of climate change or ageing pipes, but because a global financial system built around debt repayment is systematically starving the continent of resources needed to keep people alive, the African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD) has declared.
The warning came as the African Union (AU) wrapped up its 39th Ordinary Session of the Assembly in Addis Ababa on February 15, where heads of state convened under the theme of assuring sustainable water availability and safe sanitation systems to achieve the goals of Agenda 2063, the continent’s long-range development blueprint.
AFRODAD placed the financial numbers starkly before policymakers. Africa currently invests between 10 and 19 billion dollars annually in water infrastructure, against a verified requirement of at least 30 billion dollars per year. The shortfall limits investment in irrigation systems, dams, sanitation facilities and climate-resilient infrastructure essential for agriculture, urbanisation and industrial growth.
The group drew a direct line between that shortfall and the continent’s debt obligations. African governments spend an average of 18.7 percent of public revenue on debt servicing, and external debt repayments are projected to reach 90 billion dollars in 2026. Public debt across the continent stands at approximately 2.1 trillion dollars, exceeding 60 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), with 21 countries either already in or at high risk of debt distress.
African countries pay average interest rates of 9.1 percent, compared to 6.5 percent in Latin America and 4.7 percent in Asia, disparities that AFRODAD attributes to structural bias in global credit rating systems and dollar-dominated capital markets.
“Every dollar diverted to debt servicing is a dollar unavailable for water pipes, sanitation systems and irrigation schemes,” the organisation said in its summit statement.
The AU summit itself, which concluded with Burundi President Évariste Ndayishimiye assuming the continental chairmanship for 2026, adopted the water and sanitation theme as the organisation’s focus for the year. On the sidelines, experts and policymakers urged the AU commission to shift from declarations toward structural reforms on financing, climate resilience and water security.
AFRODAD Interim Executive Director Dr Theophilus Yungong Jong described the interconnection plainly. “The system is dominated by Northern creditors, exclusive groupings like the Paris Club, the G20, the G7. These are the countries that actually determine how this architecture works. At the end of the day, the rulemaking favors the creditors more than the borrowers,” he said, adding that reparative justice demands expanding fiscal space so governments can reinvest in life-sustaining public goods.
Frank Adu, senior researcher at the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET), offered a practical benchmark. “If debt servicing caps are able to free up 2 to 3 percent of GDP fiscal space, and that space is directed toward water and climate-resilient infrastructure, then the returns will exceed the debt relief that most African countries are seeking,” he said.
AFRODAD is calling on African heads of state, finance ministers and multilateral institutions to champion a United Nations (UN) Framework Convention on Sovereign Debt, expand concessional and grant-based water financing, reform credit rating systems to eliminate structural bias and legally ring-fence water and sanitation budgets from austerity-driven cuts. The demands align with the AU’s Lomé Declaration on Debt, which sets out a Common African Position on reforming global borrowing and lending rules.
The appeal takes on particular urgency as the continent marks the start of the Africa Decade of Reparations, running from 2026 to 2036.
