Abstract

AbstractName: Dickson Efosa Esonarae.Title: The Impact of Trade Liberalisation on Human Rights to Freshwater for domestic uses in the Developing World: An Examination of Nigeria.Freshwater is a vital life-sustaining resource. Though considered basic in developed countries, it is often scarce and mostly of inadequate quality in the developing world (Global South), with the WHO and UNICEF Report estimating about 1.1 billion people globally lacking access. Consequently, several countries are determined to provide freshwater for their people but often hampered by financial constraints for the requisite infrastructure. Considering this limitation, the International Economic Institutions (IEIs) identified the private sector as the solution.The solution to these problems may not lie entirely in a comprehensive private corporate takeover of freshwater delivery services due to the divergent goals of private corporations focused on a return on investment, and states focused on provision of freshwater as a public good. Therefore, it is vital to consider ways of reframing the approach to include public private cooperation (PPP) encompassing the objectives of both parties. This thesis seeks to answer a key question predicated on the assumption that privatisation as advocated by the IEIs (IMF WB) in its current form is incapable of improving freshwater rights: How can privatisation improve the access, quality and affordability of freshwater for all? The study combined qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection to which involved 25 interviewees and 250 questionnaires across Nigeria to sample the stakeholders experiences of privatisation and to examine whether privatisation of water services improved access, quality, affordability and general justiciability of the rights to freshwater. Similarly, the study uses South Africa as an example to demonstrate the asymmetrical relationship between WTO, Global North and Global South, via the trade in freshwater services. Thesis also addresses the likelihood of a re-calibration of policies focused on improving rightsholders overall justiciability of human rights to freshwater for domestic consumptions. This thesis finds that freshwater privatisation engendered some improvements. However, it also identified gender, income and urban/rural differences. Therefore, some policy shifts are needed for a full realisation of the potentials of the liberalisation of the freshwater services for the greater number of people. Finally, it recommends that privatisation with the state playing some part and policy changes taking cognisance of the most impacted or vulnerable citizens or gender is the sustainable path to a full crystallisation of the sustainable benefits of a human rights approach to freshwater services for domestic consumptions.

Awarding Institution(s)

University of Plymouth

Supervisor

Patrick Holden, Gotthard Gauci

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Date

2026

Embargo Period

2026-03-28

Deposit Date

March 2026

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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